THE cutbacks at Time Inc. are starting to claim more senior people on the business side at the same time that the editorial cuts accelerate.
And in a move likely to surprise no one, Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore has decided not to have a Christmas party this year.
Last year, during the one December of the past four when there were no layoffs, Moore held an in-house party that featured the Time Inc. Glee Club, a buffet and beverages.
This year, she decided to fire up to 600 people – and skip the party altogether.
Meanwhile, at least 20 editorial people were axed yesterday by Rick Tetzeli, the managing editor of Entertainment Weekly. Elsewhere, the company said it was axing 92 people from the circulation and consumer-marketing departments.
Some publications are looking for volunteers to leave.
Sports Illustrated Group at first looked like it would be the hardest-hit by the job cuts, but Editor Terry McDonell is actually looking for 40 people to step up across his entire group, which includes the sports weekly and related Web sites, Golf Magazine, SI for Kids and Sports Illustrated Latino. Staffers have until Nov. 24 to decide.
People also is looking for 18 volunteers, and Rick Stengel, the top editor at Time, is seeking 20 employees to step forward.
The editorial employees on People, Time and Sports Illustrated are covered by a union contract with the Newspaper Guild. Entertainment Weekly staffers are not covered, and thus were being cut outright yesterday.
No numbers have been divulged yet for Fortune and Money.
Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief John Huey already bounced Money’s top editor, Eric Schurenberg, on Nov. 6, and replaced him with Fortune Executive Editor Craig Matters.
On the business side, Matt Turck and Charles Kammerer, publishers of This Old House and Golf Magazine, respectively, were given the old heave-ho.
Turck was actually quietly let go about two weeks ago, and was replaced by Associate Publisher Ginger Sutton, who will take over the responsibilities, but not get the title.
Mad for O
In the election-related weekly newsstand race, People magazine was beaten by sibling Time, which rushed its deadline to land on newsstands last Thursday with its cover of President-elect Barack Obama.
But it looks like Larry Hackett, People’s managing editor, made a good call with his cover. The weekly, which ordinarily sells about 1.4 million copies a week on newsstands, sold an estimated 2.2 million copies last week.
Us Weekly Editor Janice Min’s bet to run an Obama cover before the election also paid off handsomely. Last week’s issue, which featured a cover shot of Obama and wife Michelle – and had to be shipped a day before Election Day because of print schedules – sold about 1 million copies. Time sells most of its rate base through subscriptions, but cranked out an additional 500,000 copies over its normal newsstand distribution.
“We went back to press three times,” a Time spokeswoman said, adding that many copies have sold out.
Two-timed
Doubledown Media, the struggling publisher of Trader Monthly, earlier this week became the latest magazine owner to announce layoffs.
About a dozen staffers were let go, and three others were placed on furlough.
Executives who are out include Richard Skeen, the president of sales, who will become a consultant, and General Manager Edward Padin.
Among those who survived the cuts, about 10 executives have been asked to take 50-percent pay cuts.
“It’s only temporary, to January,” said Doubledown President and Editorial Director Randall Lane, one of those taking the pay cut.
The move by Doubledown, which also publishes Private Air, Dealmaker, Corporate Leader and Cigar Report, probably isn’t much of a surprise given that its target audience – Wall Street’s upscale set – is fast disappearing with the credit crisis.
“They were like the froth on the top, and now that the bubble has burst they are in trouble,” said one former staffer.
In addition to facing a difficult market, Doubledown is embroiled in a legal skirmish with the founder of Private Air, Dee Dee Morrison, who claims she was cheated out of $1 million when she sold her magazine to the company.
On the job cuts, Lane said what’s confronting Doubledown is no different than what’s been shaking the publishing world in general.
“What we’re doing is trying to be smart like everyone else,” he said. “It’s painful, but we’re just tightening our belts.”
Media entrepreneur Jim Dunning, the company’s principal backer, said he continues to fund the operation, noting that he “just transferred more money” yesterday.
Dunning came on board 2½ years ago, replacing original backer Magnus Greaves, and has pumped $7 million into the operation so far.
He said he didn’t think the tumult on Wall Street, or the fallout in the luxury market, would derail the company’s progress long term.
“I’m very proud of what we are doing,” said Dunning. “Guys come and go in this industry. The whole world revolves around traders and hedge funds and that’s right where we are.”
Not OK
Sales for OK! magazine slumped to fewer than 500,000 copies on newsstands last week, and some sources say that is what drew London- based owner Richard Desmond to briefly visit New York earlier this week.
Northern + Shell, Desmond’s company, lost approximately $35 million on the US edition of OK! last year, and sources said a big reason for hiring former Wenner Media general manager Kent Brownridge was to bring a halt to that red ink.
Desmond originally vowed to spend at least $100 million on the US title before it turned a profit, and by most accounts, the three-year-old magazine has lost that amount since its inception.
“We’re down, but less than the other guys,” Brownridge said. “I’m selling a lot better now than I was a couple of weeks ago. At the end of the year, when the smoke clears, I bet I’ll be up.”
Meanwhile, Brownridge said this week’s issue of OK! has been converted into a double issue because he didn’t want to move the shipment date up due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Lyon-ize
Bill Buford, a New Yorker contributor who at one time was the magazine’s fiction editor, is heading to France. He denied reports that his contract isn’t being renewed, because he said, “There was no contract to renew, I wrote on a piece-by-piece basis.”
Buford insisted that he and Editor-in-Chief David Remnick worked out the deal a year in advance, and that his departure has nothing to do with the 5 percent job cuts taking place at The New Yorker parent Condé Nast.
Buford quit as fiction editor when he moved to Tuscany, Italy, to research what eventually became the bestselling book “Heat,” about celebrity chef Mario Batali.