Traditional media controls its content by employing finite numbers of staff, freelance journalists and news agencies.
Meanwhile, childcare minister Liz Truss is keen to cut the numbers of staff in nursery classes.
Huge numbers of boxes to tick with the banks employing huge numbers of staff to tick them.
As numbers of staff are being reduced, there are no fewer than three timebombs waiting to explode.
But even if the numbers of staff correspondents are shrinking, there is still a demand for coverage.
It has expanded into the United States and Australia, hiring large numbers of staff in the process.
Under Mark V. Hurd, H.P.'s chief executive, the company has shaved costs by regularly cutting large numbers of staff.
"I read in one paper last week that the NAO would condemn us for the numbers of staff sent to Beijing.
The CEM warned the government three years ago that there was a problem with falling numbers of staff, but no concrete solutions emerged.
It is not clear why politicians should be in charge of specifying the numbers of staff to be recruited, or when patients need to see their GPs.
"But is it of course vital that we are able to attract the right of numbers of staff to the healthcare system," said a spokesman.
