In its first decade, Progress swelled to 16 pages, carried advertisements, and reached a guaranteed circulation of 20,000.

'This will illustrate the cover of an issue with a guaranteed circulation of four hundred and twenty thousand,' she said at last.

The monthly, inspired by its sister magazine in Australia called Dolly, will have an initial guaranteed circulation of 250,000.

Its circulation was 5.90 million, compared with its guaranteed circulation of 5.7 million.

Maximum Golf, which recently raised its guaranteed circulation and had a relatively steady group of endemic advertisers, has two possible buyers.

Ad pages have fallen by double-digit rates since the investigation began, and last October the company reduced its guaranteed circulation by nearly 22 percent.

She has concentrated on rehabilitating the magazine company's image among advertisers, who had grumbled loudly in 1995 when Hearst cut its magazines' guaranteed circulation rates.

The company faces a continued loss of advertising in its main publication, Martha Stewart Living, where the guaranteed circulation was cut early this month by nearly 22 percent.

At Conde Nast Sports for Women, which is starting with a guaranteed circulation of 350,000, Ms. Danziger is also trying to send women a different message.

Architecture magazine used to have a guaranteed circulation because it was sent to members of the American Institute of Architecture, but six years ago the institute switched to Architectural Record.

The publication Printer's Ink said they had the largest guaranteed circulation of any Jewish newspaper in the U.S., and it continued to be especially strong in the West and the South.

In the last year, Family Circle "has become No. 1 in advertising among all the women's service magazines and exceeded the guaranteed circulation base by 200,000," said William T. Kerr, the Magazine Group's president.

"Maintaining your guaranteed circulation is the most expensive part of publishing," said Knight Kiplinger, editor in chief of Kiplinger's Personal Finance, which was started in 1947 and had the field to itself until Money came along.

In October 2003, a few months after Ms. Stewart was indicted, Ms. Sobel oversaw the first-ever reduction in the guaranteed circulation of Martha Stewart Living, to 1.8 million from 2.3 million.

Ad sales have posted double-digit declines, television viewership has waned, the company's flagship shows have lost their scheduling slots on CBS affiliates, and in October the company reduced the guaranteed circulation of its main publication, Martha Stewart Living.