Magazine racks are about to become a lot less entertaining: the Weekly World News will cease publication as of its August 27 issue, parent company American Media Inc. recently announced. This is sad news indeed for conspiracy theorists and alien enthusiasts, or people who just got a kick out whatever gonzo story the tab slapped on its cover each week.

The paper was launched in 1979 and quickly became known for its...creative content. Within its pages a reader could typically expect stories about aliens meeting with or endorsing various political figures; reports on Jesus or Mother Teresa sightings throughout the world; stories about dead celebs like Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe living together on a secret island; newly discovered predictions by 16th century prophet Nostradamus; and dispatches on perhaps its biggest star, the ever-irascible Bat Boy, whose stories proved so popular that he spawned books and even a stage show (for a review of the Jewish Community Center's current staging of "Bat Boy: The Musical" check the Stage section).

Because of those and other stories the Weekly World News developed a cult following, and even gained some minor mainstream recognition. The tab was referenced by name in Kevin Smith's 1994 flick "Clerks," the 1993 Mike Meyers comedy "So I Married an Axe Murderer," and perhaps most notably in 1997's "Men in Black," where Tommy Lee Jones' secret agent refers to the paper as "the best damn investigative reporting on the planet...every story in this paper is true."

Alas, not even an endorsement from Tommy Lee Jones could stop declining sales, and a recent story in the Palm Beach Post (American Media is based in Boca Raton) included circulation figures for the WWN that had been halved from 2004 to 2006, down to just 83,000. And with American Media reportedly losing more than $100 million last fiscal year, not even the fearsome Bat Boy could save the goofball publication.

If there's any silver lining, it's that the WWN website - www.weeklyworldnews.com - will continue publication, featuring stories about the world's most mosquito-bitten woman, Mother Nature endorsing Al Gore for president, and breaking news about the last known whereabouts of Amelia Earhart.