If you don't like the superstores, it is easy enough to expand your viewing horizons through other means. Just go to new sections of your superstore (the best popular book on geology, gardening, or basketball is very good, whether or not you like the topic). Stoop or stretch to slightly uncomfortable levels. Use the stool. Peruse books randomly. Look at other peoples' discard piles. Spend more time in public libraries, which offer many of the best features of indie bookshops, including informed staff, diversity, and offbeat titles. Of course, public libraries aren't exactly atmospherically "cool." The clientele is often young children, women over 40, and retired men. I visit five public libraries on a regular basis, and each one makes me feel old. But they deliver the goods.

So, anyone who loves an independent bookstore is some kind of status-seeking literati who longs to be known as a reader with maverick, impressive tastes? That's absurd. We love small, interesting bookstores because we have fond memories of wandering through interesting book shops in Oxford, in New York, in San Francisco, or whatever city we might be in. Book shops are interesting, they smell good, have knowledgeable clerks and they have great atmosphere. Online ordering at the big chains can't be beat for selection and price: there's a place for both kind of stores.

But in a new sign that steep hills remain to climb, or quit, Meredith Corp. has decided to stop even trying to sell Child on the racks, ceding that territory to books like its own Parents and American Baby as well as competitors such as Parenting from Time Inc., Cookie from Conde Nast Publishing and Wondertime from Disney Publishing.

The one-year-old free publication was losing between $9-million and $10-million a year. The decision to shelve it came amid dwindling support from advertisers, the company said.

Dose, which was aimed at readers in their late teens and 20s, failed to establish a large enough audience in a competitive newspaper market that has seen several free newspapers launch in major Canadian cities over the past two years, said Peter Viner, chief executive officer of the income fund. It was published in five cities.

Mr. Viner said the decision to cease publishing was made late last week after months of canvassing advertisers who were increasingly lukewarm to the idea of reaching younger audiences through print.

"We went out and talked to advertisers and it became pretty clear that those that want to spend against an 18-to-24 year old group want to do it on the Web, they don't want to do it in the paper," Mr. Viner said.

Starting in January, The Wall Street Journal, now 15 inches wide, will shrink to 12 inches-a full column narrower. The depth of the page will stay the same, at 223/4 inches. The Journal will change from a 60-inch to a 48-inch web width, which in the last few years has become the industry standard among the nation's roughly 1,500 daily newspapers.

In April, The New York Times replaced six pages of financial tables with two pages of analytical tools and market summaries. Online readers of NYTimes.com now have a broad array of functions for stock coverage, including customizing tools. The Times' Sunday print edition continues to run stock listings.

Tribune Co. announced in January that its flagship Chicago Tribune would cut back on stock tables. (Rumors persist on Wall Street that Tribune Cop. might be the next major newspaper holding company to go on the block.) The Los Angeles Times and Newsday , both owned by Tribune Co., announced similar cutbacks in their printed stock tables.

The Seattle Times eliminated Sunday stock tables in 2005.

The Washington Post shrank in 1998 to reduce newsprint costs.

The focus on TV and online could be a reflection of a flattening out at the newsstand. Nobody releases newsstand sales except to auditors twice a year, so it is difficult to gauge momentum. But Ad Age went to insiders, who each put their own spin on the single-copy performance of the top four stargazers -- Time Inc.'s People, Us Weekly, Star and Bauer's In Touch Weekly. Depending on whose numbers you believe, the top four either sold 1% more on newsstands through May 8, compared with the start of last year, or lost 1.5% in sales.

The confusion just gets thicker by title. One circulation insider reported that Us Weekly's newsstand sales have fallen 9% so far against the start of last year, while another said sales actually grew 1%. Is Star up almost 3%, per the first insider, or down 11%? Is People up 7% or just 1%?

Official numbers will eventually emerge, but for now, the spinning continues. As will the gimmicks. In Touch and Life & Style are each selling their next issue at 25 cents instead of $1.99. Richard Desmond's OK magazine has extended its own temporary price promotion, pricing the newest celebrity tab at $1.99 instead of $3.29.

According to estimates based on checkout scan data, three of the most recent four issues have sold between 600,000 and 700,000 copies on the newsstand ? far fewer than the average of 863,508 reported to the Audit Bureau of Circulations in the second half of last year. Only the April 24 issue, whose main cover line read, "Britney's Baby Fractures Skull!", broke the 700,000 mark, sources said. An American Media spokeswoman said, "Our rate base is 1.5 million and the magazine will achieve its rate base. But we don't give out numbers for individual issues."

Dow Jones told employees in a memo last week that it was considering whether to outsource some of the jobs, Gordon Crovitz, publisher of the company's flagship newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, told Reuters on Thursday.

He declined to provide a specific number, but said it would be less than 100 positions. He also declined to say where the jobs would go.

"It's a very small amount," Crovitz said.

No newsroom positions are to be cut, he said.

The Republican newspaper in Springfield, Massachusetts, reported that Dow Jones is considering job cuts at its customer service and printing facility in Chicopee, Massachusetts.

Average paid circulation at Sunday newspapers fell 3.1 percent versus the same period a year ago, also a comparable decline with the last time circulation tallies were reported, the NAA said.

The figures were based on NAA's analysis of circulation figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, a separate group which reports figures on individual newspapers but not industrywide data.

Despite the declines in paid copies, the NAA also reported Monday that newspaper-run Web sites had an 8 percent increase in viewers in the first quarter. The data from Nielsen/NetRatings found that newspaper Web sites averaged 56 million users in the period, or 37 percent of all online users in the period, the NAA said.

Newsmagazines have "morphed into something that is farther away from news and much closer to entertainment," said Joe Foote, acting dean of the University of Oklahoma's journalism school. "They're a long way from their roots."

They're also a long way from their peak. "60 Minutes" is the only newsmagazine to routinely draw more than 10 million viewers a week; four separate newsmagazine hours accomplished that just five years ago.

"Dateline NBC," on for five hours a week in the late 1990s, will lose its Sunday edition during football season next fall. Its only other regularly scheduled episode was moved a few months ago to Saturday, considered broadcast television's dead zone.

There's a very real chance that either "Primetime" or "20/20" won't be included when ABC announces its fall schedule in two weeks. What may save them is ABC's need to fill several struggling time slots.

Even as regular newsmagazine hours dwindle, a new niche for their staffs as a journalistic SWAT team has emerged. The staffs, particularly at "Dateline NBC," are on call to quickly produce compelling long-form programming for prime time when a big news event warrants, like in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last year.

The Denver Post plans to reduce the size of its newsroom staff by about 8 percent, the newspaper told employees Tuesday.

The Post has targeted a voluntary reduction of 25 positions out of around 300.

"As of today, there are no plans for layoffs," said Post editor Gregory L. Moore.

Unionized and management employees were informed of early-retirement and voluntary-separation packages, with payouts based on tenure at the paper. There is also an option to keep health-insurance coverage at current employee rates or take a lump-sum payment.