Time Inc. Announces Layoffs, Names Co-Operating Chiefs

HA ha...

co-chief operating officers.

Yikes. That's going to be a very stressful place for the poor underlings to work.

Did I miss something, or at no point did the article suggest their brain-dead lefty editorial policy might be just an itty-bitty problem??

You're so right! It would be more hurtful to them to let go of their ideology and liberal bias.

Here's a headline you'll never see from the liberal media:

The NY Times fires their liberal/unbalanced reporting and democratic party alliance.

Didja catch this item at the end?

Moore said in the memo that Time Inc. will have "another record year" of operating income before depreciation and amortization, or OIBDA), over last year, with advertising revenue gaining more than $100 million and total revenue up $225 million.

Did the Enron "bookkeepers" find work at Time Inc? Another "record" year, eh? Something really smells about all this. The Goebbelists will continue to run the joint as they send worker bees packin'? There ain't no justice.

It may be a very stressful place for the poor underlings to work.

But it will "simplify its management structure, speed up decision-making"
¿?

Time and Newsweek are the "buggy whip" media.

This morning's WSJ rewrite...

Time Inc. Thins
Managerial Ranks
In Restructuring
By JOE HAGAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 14, 2005; Page B3

Facing a difficult advertising environment, Time Inc. yesterday announced extensive management changes, cutting 105 staff positions that included a number of veteran business-side executives.

Ann Moore, the chairman and chief executive officer of the magazine publisher, a unit of New York-based Time Warner Inc., said the cuts are part of an effort begun in July to restructure the company. "I needed to slim down the top-management structure if I was going to hold the whole organization accountable to changes," said Ms. Moore. "It was time."

The new structure will consolidate Time Inc.'s 154 magazines under two new co-chief operating officers, Nora McAniff and John Squires. Previously, 10 executive vice presidents had reported to Ms. Moore. The new centralized structure reduces the number of those posts, running counter to a long tradition of relative independence among Time Inc. magazines.

In addition, Ms. Moore halved the number of executives at most of the major magazines, which previously operated with both a president and a publisher, and now will have just one. She said the savings would be reinvested in building out digital properties.

Among those departing are Richard Atkinson, a 14-year Time Inc. veteran who was executive vice president of the recently formed news and information group, which includes the financial magazines Fortune and Money. Jack Haire, the executive vice president in charge of advertising sales, accepted an early-retirement package after 28 years.

Several of Time Inc.'s best-known titles have seen ad-page declines through the first 11 months of the year, according to Publishers Information Bureau. Fortune's ad pages are down 10.3%, and those for the company's flagship title, Time, have fallen 14.2%. There are bright spots, however: People's ad pages are up 6.9% through November, while In Style's have increased 5%.

Ms. McAniff, 47 years old, has been a close associate of Ms. Moore and served as executive vice president of the women's Entertainment and Luxury Group at Time Inc. She will continue to manage the women's group, as well as corporate sales and marketing, and also IPC Media, the company's British magazine division. Mr. Squires, 48, will continue previous responsibilities for the sports and leisure division, and add news and financial titles such as Time and Fortune.

The moves take place against a backdrop of financial pressure from New York financier Carl Icahn, who is campaigning against Time Warner's current management in an effort to boost the company's stock price. Early on in his campaign, Mr. Icahn floated the idea that Time Warner should spin off its publishing operations. The prospect of leaving the mother ship, where Time Inc. has enjoyed a long and prosperous history, would unnerve many at the division. Mr. Icahn also has criticized what he calls a "bloated cost structure" at Time Warner.

Ms. Moore said the cuts weren't related to investor pressure on Time Warner and its CEO, Richard Parsons. "No, this is not a reaction to the pressure on Dick," she said. "This is long overdue at Time Inc."

--Julia Angwin and Brian Steinberg contributed to this article.

Write to Joe Hagan at joe.hagan@wsj.com