The very same Tribune Co. that has put itself up for sale is about to give away classifieds for free. Well, some classifieds, at least. Merchandise only.

For a long time now, sites such as Craigslist have given away classifieds in most of the Tribune markets. Perhaps Tribune realized what many of us have been saying: It's just not possible to compete with free. The first step toward beating the Craigslists of the world is admitting that no one in their right mind is going to pay for something they can get elsewhere for free.

Executives, repeat after me: "Hi, I'm a newspaper executive, and I've been selling refrigerators to Eskimos."

Now it's our turn: "Hi, (exec's name here)."

Sorry, Eskimos. No offense . . . I suppose I could have chosen, "sweaters for lions." Or, "underpants for pop stars." They're all corny, so I went with a more traditional cliche.

It's really not fair to pick on Tribune. Aren't they leading the pack on this one? And making fun of newspaper executives probably isn't a productive way to convince them to make changes. We'll just have to wait patiently until they lose enough money or market share to pay attention.