Time Inc. is shutting down All You.
It marks the first magazine to close since Joe Ripp took over as CEO 18 months and began moving the publishing behemoth to become a more board based media company.
The 11-year old title, which was as recently as 2011 the ninth-largest circulation magazine in the US, had started out life only available at Walmart but suffered in recent years after the bankruptcy of a distributor and the end of the exclusive arrangement with the retailer.
With its close, all of the quartet of Time Inc. magazines launched in the heady pre-recession days of 2004 have now been shuttered. That included Life as an insert into newspapers that only lasted two years, Suede, aimed at young African-American women that lasted one year and Cottage Living, which lasted four years.
About 30 people lose their jobs as a result of the move, sources said — 20 on the editorial side and 10 on the business side.
The decision to shutter All You comes on the same day Ripp confirmed that the company is buying Hello Giggles, a social media and Web site aimed at millennial women. The purchase was for an estimated $20 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported the Giggles acquisition on Sunday.
Hello Giggles will be blended into the People/Entertainment Weekly operations, the company said and will remain Los Angeles-based. Its CEO Sophia Rivka Rossi co-founded the site in 2011 with actress Zooey Deschanel and Molly McAleer.
As for All You, rumors about its probable demise had been swirling for several weeks but it wasn’t until a Monday morning staff meeting called by executive vice president Evelyn Webster, group Editor Clare McHugh and Group Publisher Greg Schumann that the staff got the bad news.
All You was estimated to be losing about $5 million a year.
Time Inc. expected the losses to increase, industry sources said, as more shopping was done online. Newsstand sales — once its strength — are on the slide and were also expected to deteriorate, sources added.
The decision to close the title took on new urgency because All You had been scheduled to be among the first wave of titles to vacate Rockefeller Center for Time Inc.’s new downtown HQ.
McHugh and Schumann who have responsibilities with several other titles, will remain at Time Inc.
The first serious signs of distress at the title surfaced several years ago with the end of Time Inc.’s exclusive distribution deal with Walmart. At that time, the retailer stopped giving it prominent placement and cut back on promotion within its stores.
It didn’t help subsequently that wholesaler Source Interlink went bankrupt. It had handled distribution to many Walmart stores.
Webster, in an internal memo obtained by The Post, said, “As part of our ongoing transformation, we are constantly evaluating our portfolio of brands and products, examine existing assets and assessing their ability to deliver meaningful growth into the future… All You has faced a particularly difficult landscape in the shopper marketing space as well as endemic newsstand challenges.”
Webster also pointed out that the company recently said it would begin distributing a US version of the trendy British design and lifestyle title Wallpaper. Time Inc. has also expanded the Sports Illustrated brand with a number of smaller acquisitions.
All You will stop publishing with the December issue.
Time Inc. shares were up 9 cents in early Monday trading, at $18.96. They are down 23 percent in 2015.