At the beginning of 2002, my news intake shrank just a little bit. The local daily newspapers altered the size of their paper stock and presses, giving me two inches less than the year before. The change is subtle, but it has made me wonder about the implications.

When it comes to receiving news, I reach for the newspaper first. Television news is more about the personalities and the sensationalism of certain stories (usually ones with more than a hint of tabloid). Most stories on TV start and finish in 30 seconds time. Not really worth digesting. The Internet is another viable option (it's how you're reading this column), but I still have not gotten used to reading news off the screen. This is somewhat strange and hypocritical since I'm able to look at my own writings for a few hours on the screen if need be. There's still something holy about words in print that give it a sense of permanence. Basically, choosing news sources is all about personal preference, and I prefer the newspaper.

My daily newspaper, The Albuquerque Tribune, has a joint operating agreement with the major (and probably better) Albuquerque Journal. I get the Trib because it's cheaper and comes in the afternoon, and a few years back, I used to write some A & E articles for them. Because of their JOA, both papers chopped an inch off two sides of each page. They claimed the move was more efficient and environmentally friendly, but I suspect it's really an effort to save money.

While the shrinkage only eliminates a couple back page stories and reduces the size of the classified ads, it feels like I get less of a paper. By no means do I read every article in the newspaper, but I do thumb through most sections peeking for headlines with any interest. I read other columnists as well, although it's surprising how of my topics are never discussed by the scribes in the paper. How many times can someone spout off about the gerrymandering of voting districts in town? Sheesh.

I'm getting used to the smaller paper, but it does signifying the continuing trend that newspapers are a dying breed in the new world. Albuquerque is one of the smallest markets in America to have two dailies. The main reason, I believe, is that change comes so slowly in the desert that no one wants to make the big decision to cut one. We've had two papers for so long that we don't know any other way.

Maybe this shrinkage isn't a big deal. Maybe it's part of a national trend. After all, most Americans want to trim a few inches in the new year. One of the weeklies also shrunk its size within the last year. I just hope the trend doesn't continue. Should we all be downsizing? Should my columns be shorter? Should we shrink our news intake, or are we really going to have to rely more on the screens to get the news to us?

I don't want to end up walking out to my driveway and picking up a glorified pamphlet. It would list all of the headlines of the day along with the first three sentences of the story. If I wanted to know more I could subscribe to the web-site and click on the stories that most interested me that day. What about the women's underwear ads? What about all the sports stats that fit nicely on one or two pages? Will I have to boot up my computer every time I want to read an article? What about those articles I don't want to read initially but get around to later?

Okay, I've hit the brave new world extreme, so I better just accept a couple less inches of the paper. In honor of less news, I'll stop my column right now. It's not so big a deal. Yet.

Chris Jungle has no problem writing less for more pay.