Last week we reported that Viz would be bumping up the graphic novel releases of Naruto so that more than twice the amount out now would be released by year's end. At the same time, Shonen Jump also announced they'd be bumping up the Naruto chapters in each issue by 2. But its fate in the magazine was still largely unknown, considering it'd quickly be behind the graphic novel releases. But now, Viz's product manager Cammie Allen has shed some light on what their plans are.

Apparently Viz still plans for Shonen Jump to be the first place to catch new chapters of the manga before anywhere else, & they're doing so by doing something similar to what they did with Yu-Gi-Oh a few years back. According to Allen, the current publication of Naruto will stop after the October issue of SJ. Then starting in the January 2008 issue, the story will jump to the Shippuden storyline that takes place 2 & a half years later. In the November & December issues the magazine will contain feature story & character information to help readers understand what's happened in the chapters that wont be appearing in Shonen Jump in order for them to catch up. Obviously though, readers will have the option of picking up the graphic novels to see all that they're missing.

The point behind all of this is so the manga will once again be ahead of the anime, & that way fans will pick up the manga to see what happens way before it appears on TV. Shonen Jump did something similar with the Yu-Gi-Oh manga a few years ago. After showing the first part of the story (which has never been seen on American TV), they took a break for a few issues to inform readers about what was going on during the Duelist Kingdom & Battle City sagas, & then jumped to the Millennium World saga (which at the time also hadn't aired in America yet).

As a final note, a new manga will also debut in the November 2007 issue of Shonen Jump as well. At this time Viz was not willing to reveal what the title is going to be. There's a chance that it's a brand new title, but I'm also thinking of the possibility that it'll be Bleach (perhaps starting from the Arrancar storyline, which is where the Japanese anime currently is).

Source: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6438250.html