The news hit this reporter like a crashing UFO (piloted, of course, by Amelia Earhart.)

The Weekly World News (official motto: "The World's Only Reliable Newspaper" - no really) is ceasing publication.

I blame the aliens.

Because where else except in this publication are you going to read about what the aliens are up to? For example, in this week's issue is the shocking story of a man who's being harassed by extraterrestrial telemarketers, in clear violation of the national "Do Not Call List." (Headline: "ETs phone his home.")

But we are getting ahead of our story. Last week, American Media Inc., the Boca Raton, Fla.-based owner of a number of weekly tabloids, announced that Weekly World News would fold after 28 years of printing headlines about sightings of Elvis, Hitler, JFK, Bigfoot and a race of space aliens who worship Oprah.

According to published reports, one employee at the paper said the staff was called into a meeting and told they would all be out of jobs as of Aug. 3. "The reasons they gave don't even make sense." Well maybe not in Weekly World News land, but this is a familiar story in the rest of the publishing world..

The company, which also publishes The National Enquirer and The Star, said that changes in the market for magazines had made publication of WWN much more difficult. It was reported that the company had said the circulation of the magazine had dropped to 83,000 in 2006 from 153,000 in 2004.

Now, if a newspaper that prints headlines like "Angel of Death Visits Earth" can't maintain its circulation, what hope is there for the rest of the print media?

I mean, for us, a sexy headline is something like "Board to mull eyeing report." It just doesn't have the same panache.

WWN was always the poor stepchild of the supermarket tabloid family. According to urban legend, when the Enquirer and Star upgraded to all-color printing, the publishers started Weekly World News as a way of getting some use out of the black and white press equipment they still owned.

And when the other tabs switched to covering celebrity gossip, WWN stuck to its roots with stories about Mother Nature endorsing Al Gore for president.

But no longer. Some other publication is going to have to keep track of those sightings of Elvis. Oh no, I forgot. After years of reporting that Elvis was still alive, a few years ago the paper reported that Elvis was, in fact, now dead. (Or was he?)

Ed Anger, the famously irascible columnist who used to tell readers that he was "pig-bitin' mad," is going to have to find another outlet for his wrath. (Fox News may have an opening.)

And how will we keep up with the exploits of Bat Boy, the half-human, half-bat youngster discovered living underground and later recruited to fight Osama Bin Laden because of his cave exploring skills? And, most importantly, what are we going to read in the checkout line?

TOM REILLY is a Sun Chronicle news editor. And in a shocking exclusive, he can be reached at 508-236-0332 or at treilly@thesunchronicle.com. At least that's what Jimmy Hoffa says.