How Desperate is the LATimes?

Yesterday when I called to cancel my 25-year subscription to the LATimes -- its Saturday editorial lying about Dr. Dobson did 'em in -- I was transferred up the line to a Dedicated Subscription Saver Commando. In the course of our conversation, this exchange occurred:

DSSC: Do you enjoy the business, sports and calendar coverage in the Times?

CSM: No, not particularly. Why?

DSSC: Well, if you would still like to still receive those parts of the paper, we can deliver them to you without the news sections.

CSM: [thunderstruck silence]

How often must the beleagured circulation department of the LATimes be dealing with calls like mine, for them to come up with a special like this? How many late-night workers do they employ to strip down opinion-sanitized versions of their paper in order to cling to a diminishing subscription base?

A lot, obviously, but apparently not enough to cause any effort to realign the paper's editorial line to bring it closer to their readers' point of view.