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What: The Sporting News sheds its horsehide.

Price: $3.25

First, the weekly box scores vanished.

Then, the separate American and National League columns.

And now, with its latest redesign and retooling, The Sporting News has further distanced itself from its distant “Baseball Bible” past, pumping up its professional and college football coverage because, well, you got to give the people what they want.

And they want football, football and more football--according to the enlightening results of a recent survey of Sporting News readers.

Of the “Big Six” sports TSN builds its coverage around, baseball barely ranked third. On a scale of one to 10, according to the survey, “avid readers” are most interested in the NFL (9.12), followed by college football (7.87). Then, you can toss a blanket over the next three--baseball (7.79), the NBA (7.45) and men’s college basketball (7.42). The NHL, which has made recent inroads in popularity at baseball’s expense, is sixth at 5.73.

Thus, the first edition of the new-look The Sporting News features a cover story on Buffalo Bill defensive end Bruce Smith, a lead column promoting a college football playoff system, a back-page column on the sorry state of NFL quarterbacking and 31 pages--roughly one-third of the magazine--devoted to football.

Baseball, which, granted, is in off-season, receives a paltry eight pages.

And those baseball box scores that served for decades as the publication’s lifeblood?

They’ve been gone for years, but two full pages of NFL summaries make the cut.

It’s a sign of the times--and circulation curves--and the next page on the calendar reads 1998, not 1898. Survival in the publication business means adapting to changing reader tastes--even if that necessitates the “Baseball Bible” losing its religion.