Time Inc is cutting 300 staff throughout its global operations as it looks to secure its future and “return the company to growth”, the publisher’s president and chief executive has said.
Rich Battista said the departures – equivalent to about 4 per cent of the US-based publisher’s more than 7,000-strong workforce – were a mixture of enforced and voluntary redundancies.
Time Inc publishes 50 titles in the UK, including Marie Claire UK, NME, TV Times, Cycling Weekly, Ideal Home, Horse & Hounds and Country Life magazines. It also owns women’s weeklies including Chat, Now, Look, Pick Me Up!, Woman, Woman’s Own and Woman’s Weekly.
Time Inc’s UK portfolio of titles was previously owned by IPC Media, which was bought out by the publisher back in 2001 before being rebranded as Time Inc in 2014.
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The New York Post claimed former IPC staff based in London could be hardest hit in the cuts, with a source telling the US paper that up to 100 people had been made redundant, but that they had also been invited to apply for between 30 and 40 newly created job roles.
A source also told the Post that about 40 per cent of the 300 cuts were from people who had accepted voluntary buyout packages.
In a memo to staff, seen by Press Gazette, Battista said: “One of the key components of our go-forward strategy is reengineering our cost structure to become more efficient and to reinvest resources in our growth areas as we position the company for long-term success.
“Today we took a difficult but necessary step in that plan as approximately 300 of our colleagues throughout Time Inc.’s global operation will be leaving the company.
“Some have been informed that their positions will be eliminated, while others have volunteered to accept buyout offers. I thank each and every one of them for their hard work, dedication and service.”
He added: “As I’ve mentioned many times, Time Inc. is a company in rapid transformation in an industry undergoing dynamic change.
“Transformations do take time and patience, but I am encouraged by the demonstrable progress we are making as we implement our strategy in key growth areas, such as video, native advertising and brand extensions, and as we see positive signs of stabilising our print business, which remains an important part of our company.
“I look forward to sharing more information about the progress of these and other key strategic initiatives at the appropriate time.
“In the meantime, if we remain focused on doing great work and on aggressively leveraging our extraordinary portfolio of assets, I am confident that together we can accelerate our momentum and return the company to growth.”
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