It struck me that not everything that was taken out was "noise". For example, the "Most Popular Today" and "Most E-mailed" type stuff. They provide a handy way to find the most potent stories of the moment that editorially directed front pages can be a little slow highlighting.

Perhaps as well as the layout, the "business class" service could also include better (and more immediate) forms of discoverability and curation to help with the above, or even the ablity to create filters (so I could block out all political or environmental stories, say).