Offering less in order to take more ...

Circuit City, it was announced a few days ago, has fired 3,400 of its highest-paid sales staff members and will replace them with lower-paid workers. By cutting these costs Circuit City believes it will become more profitable.

This makes exactly the same kind of sense as it does for newspapers to cut back on coverage and features as a means to higher profits.

At least Circuit City was up-front about it but I have never heard of a newspaper admitting openly that it was cutting back on anything. Newspaper cutbacks are almost always disguised as a benefit - as when the New York Times cut back its page size so readers might more easily hold them, or something like that.

Businesses that are fading need to offer more, not take more.