Time Inc. Calls for Buyouts

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Time Inc. Calls for Buyouts
Nov 11, 2008

-By Lucia Moses, Mediaweek

NEW YORK With a handful of higher-ups already out the door, Time Inc. is moving to the rank-and-file as it, like other publishers, seeks to reduce its workforce in the face of dropping ad revenue.

Some of Time Inc.’s biggest magazines have put out the call for at least 83 volunteers to take buyouts, according to memos and staffers at the company. The news comes as part of the company’s previously announced restructuring and plan to cut its headcount by about 600, or roughly 6 percent of the Time Inc.’s worldwide workforce of 10,200.

Sports Illustrated said it is looking for about 40 Newspaper Guild and non-guild volunteers from the editorial side. People is seeking 23 volunteers and Time magazine about 20. Fortune and Money are also looking for volunteers from guild members, but did not specify a number.

Volunteers are asked to come forth by Dec. 1 to avoid involuntary layoffs.

Other, non-Guild cuts are expected to be made throughout the company’s 24 U.S. titles today.

“No one’s immune,” said one staffer, who called the mood “extremely grim.”