Next weekend you'll find The News & Observer's television guide in the Sunday paper, its new home.

The switch from Saturday publication is just one of many changes to the guide, which is called Channels.

The new Channels is more compact, roughly comparable to the size of a small magazine rather than a newspaper tabloid. But the average number of pages will rise from 36 to 52 a week.

That's similar to other TV guides and a size we think readers will find handier to keep around all week.

We've added some features and improved the content of Channels in other ways.

Among the changes:

* Expanded movie listings, including rating descriptions to advise viewers about profanity, violence and other elements of programming that some might want us to flag.

* A new trivia quiz and word search puzzle.

* Expanded highlights for prime time, family and kids' programming.

* New highlights for cooking, as well as home and garden shows.

* An expanded cable guide conversion chart that will include VCR-plus codes and channels for Direct TV and Dish Net.

* A celebrity news column.

* A "New on Cable" feature of cable debuts.

Joyce Clark Hicks, who oversees Channels, notes that we haven't shrunk the type size even though the page is smaller. We've also held on to a number of elements that readers like.

Sherry Howe, who designed the updated guide, worked to make Channels as easy to use as possible.

Channels will come with more local advertising, and some of that advertising will attach to the cover or protrude from the margins of the book. We expect some readers to enjoy the new advertising and some to complain.

We think the new Channels is a better TV guide than its predecessor. We also recognize that a television book is part of many readers' routines and that the changes require some adjustment.

The decision to move from Saturday to Sunday wasn't made lightly. We had to switch days to meet the production deadlines for the new book, which is being printed in Detroit and trucked back to our plant to be inserted into the newspaper.

Because Channels has run on Saturdays for years, however, we know some readers will find the change jarring. A few have complained in advance.

We'll work to make the transition easy. As the TV magazine moves to Sunday, we will add our full-page television listings to the Saturday Home & Garden section.

We'll also run extra pages of listings this Saturday to make sure you don't miss anything.

We hope you like the updated guide. Please share comments or suggestions with me or with features editor Tommy Goldsmith, who can be reached at tgold@newsobserver.com or 829-8929.