Time’s Profits Down, 136 Employees Will Lose Jobs

Time Inc. will lay off 136 editorial and business workers in its magazine divisions, a cost-cutting move that follows a drop in profits, company officials said today.

The move came as the media conglomerate announced a $16-million decline in fourth-quarter profit, including an estimated $13-million cost of the layoffs. Its profit for the full year was also down by $16 million.

“We must run leaner operations,” officials of Time Inc. said in a memo distributed to magazine employees. Along with other cuts, “regrettably but inevitably, this effort must also involve reductions in our staff,” they said.

Hiring Freeze Ordered

Spokesman Michael Luftman said the company will lay off 62 editorial employees and 74 business employees, notifying those selected in the next few days. Time Inc. also has frozen all hiring, he said.

The move follows a company announcement last October that it intended to cut costs by 2.5%, or $75 million. Since then, 52 magazine jobs have been eliminated by attrition, Luftman said.

Time Inc. magazines, with a combined circulation of 19 million, include Time, Sports Illustrated, Discover, Life, People, Fortune and Money. The company last week halted tests of a new magazine, Picture Week, for editorial changes.

The magazines have 1,545 editorial employees and 2,188 business employees.

‘Have to Do Better Job’

“We felt that the company has not controlled its costs as well as it can or as well as it should,” Luftman said. “In the business environment that the company operates in today, we have to do a better job at controlling costs.”