THE intense competition among personal-finance magazines has been thrown into sharp focus with the September issues of Money and Kiplinger's.

Bloomberg will begin publishing a personal-finance magazine to be distributed with Sunday newspapers in major cities.

IN trying to attract the attention, and subscriptions, of aging baby boomers, most personal-finance magazines overwork the theme of retirement.

Investment Vision, the personal-finance magazine of the Fidelity Investments mutual fund group, will be completely redesigned and renamed Worth.

Last year, the special-interest group expanded to Europe with two personal-finance magazines.

While the use of multiple, or "split," covers is not unusual in the magazine industry, it is uncommon among personal-finance magazines.

The other two leading personal-finance magazines do not yet have Web sites, but each expects to have one by late spring.

Worth, a personal-finance magazine being introduced this week, is running a series of humorous television and radio commercials in large markets around the country.

We were trying to help an advertiser, and in this case it was something we should not have done as a personal-finance magazine.

IT looks as if Money - the country's highest-circulation personal-finance magazine - could be facing some major content changes.