That has to be unnerving, but I can at least offer a little bit of comfort: The worst-case scenario the employees would be facing had they been purchased by private equity firm ZelnickMedia, which was also bidding for the publication.

The short version: Almost everybody gets fired.

Here’s the longer version of the plan, provided to me by a person familiar with ZelnickMedia’s bid. It sounds like a plausible idea for a PE group that specializes in turning around distressed assets–and a chilling one for anybody who draws a paycheck at BusinessWeek:

• Wind down BusinessWeek’s print business “as profitably as possible”–the company would have to honor existing subscriptions and could still sell ads in the magazine. But the focus would be on building up BusinessWeek’s Web site, which has a decent-sized footprint, though not a huge one.
• Dump almost all of the company’s newsgathering staff and outsource most of that work to Thomson Reuters (TRI).
• Employ a small handful of editorial employees–perhaps 20, down from the 200-plus who are there now. Some of them would run a Huffington Post-style aggregation site that produces no original content, and some more expensive hires would produce a smattering of high-quality reporting and writing designed to burnish/sustain the BusinessWeek brand. “Just to give it uniqueness and sizzle,” my source tells me.
• Dump most of the existing business side, as well, but overhaul and bulk up the sales force.

The insult-to-injury kicker: Under ZelnickMedia’s proposal, the buyer wouldn’t pay a dime for the publication it intended to rebuild. Instead, McGraw-Hill would pay the fund to take the publication off its hands. If that sounds implausible, consider that McGraw-Hill just announced that it will save up to $25 million next year by not owning the title.

Given the above terms, it’s easy enough to see why McGraw-Hill ended up going with Bloomberg. For starters, the winning bidder actually paid cash for the magazine, and McGraw-Hill will end up netting a $5.9 million gain, after taxes, on the deal.

Also important: McGraw-Hill won’t have to anguish as it watches one of its flagship properties get dismantled.

So what will happen to BusinessWeek now that Bloomberg owns it? Nothing nearly so drastic, at least in the short term. For now, Bloomberg is talking about bulking up the title, not shredding it, so that’s a good sign for both employees and readers.

Alas, Bloomberg can’t take on all of the magazine employees looking for jobs, and that pool is only going to get bigger.

Forbes slashed deep into its staff this week, and next week Time Warner’s (TWX) Time Inc. will lay out some of its layoff goals. I’ve heard Time Inc. employees refer to layoff plans as “tree-trimming” or “surgical,” but I think the trimming will feel much blunter to the folks who lose their jobs. The publisher’s cost-cutting plans include hundreds of layoffs–something likely similar to the cuts the publisher went through last year, I’m told.

The New York Post’s Keith Kelly reports today that Time’s News and Finance unit, which includes Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated, will be particularly hard hit, and I’ve confirmed that myself.

UPDATE: No surprise here: BusinessWeek President Keith Fox is stepping down. Mild surprise: He’s staying on at McGraw-Hill. Here’s his memo:

When we announced that McGraw-Hill was exploring strategic options for BusinessWeek, I promised to communicate with you as openly and often as I could. In this spirit, I wanted each of you to know that I will be remaining with McGraw-Hill after the deal with Bloomberg is closed. I will continue to play a role in the integration post-close and plan to take on a new role at McGraw-Hill in 2010.

During this process, our collective goal was to find the best buyer for BusinessWeek. I am proud that I played a role in ensuring that BusinessWeek has a new home at Bloomberg, where it will thrive under the leadership of Norman Pearlstine. I am committed to the transition and helping in any way that I can.

It’s been a privilege to be the President of BusinessWeek. I thank Terry McGraw for his confidence and trust in me and Glenn Goldberg for his support, direction, clarity, and sense of humor. I’ve also been a member of an amazing team which has navigated the transformation of the media environment with agility, focus, passion, and integrity.

The team–Steve Adler, Jessica Sibley, Tania Secor, Linda Brennan, Roger Neal, and Carl Fischer–is the best in the industry. Like BusinessWeek, they have bright futures ahead of them. I will miss the daily interaction, but I am wiser (and a little grayer) because of their collaborative spirit and desire to make BusinessWeek the global leader in business that it is today.

I also have a special thanks to Patricia Hipplewith, my assistant, who juggled my calendar, protected me from solicitors, and kept me on schedule and well fed! She is the personification of commitment and integrity.

I am humbled by BusinessWeek’s 80-year history. Thank you for allowing me to play a small part in it.

Keith

At a TVWeek conference in Manhattan, Bewkes repeated arguments he has made in the past: Chiefly, that big media mergers have a lousy track record and that he couldn’t see how Comcast (CMCSA) could unlock any value by buying a majority stake in NBC Universal from GE (GE).

“Somebody has finally noticed that these things don’t work out so well,” he said, adding “We love to see our competitors taking risks.”

But just to hammer that point home, Bewkes compared the proposed deal to the one his company made nine years ago when it embarked on an ill-fated merger with AOL. That deal (made when Bewkes was running Time Warner’s HBO unit)  “basically made no sense” at the time, he said.

The main talking point in favor of that transaction–that connecting Time Warner’s content with AOL’s Internet distribution would create synergy–was “nonsensical,” he said. But “these kind of arguments, you’ll hear some of them this week, in the other merger that we’ve been talking about,” Bewkes said.

Clear enough?

Wall Street, by the way, remains unimpressed with the proposed deal as well: Comcast shares are down about 10 percent since word got out.

In other reiteration news, Bewkes also said, again, that he doesn’t plan on selling his Time Inc. publishing unit. Though he left himself a tiny window of wiggling room by noting that “no public company can ever say that it wouldn’t consider restructuring some part, whether it’s Warner, HBO, whatever.”

But Bewkes insisted that Time Inc.’s best-known magazine brands, including “Time, People, Sports Illustrated, InStyle,” are holding their own as print products and that the challenge will be turning them into online successes.

“We have basically a healthy business in terms of our relationship with readers. These brands mean something and they’re evolving…,” he said. “If you can’t take the leading titles that people have known for decades, and use the new world to make them relevant, really, shame on us.”

Crawford’s thinking: After Time Warner ditches AOL, which is scheduled for a spinoff later this year, the company will ditch its magazine business as well. That will leave it with a portfolio made up only of a movie studio and cable networks, and a big cash pile to play with.

Time Warner won’t comment, but I’m sure the company has heard Crawford make this prediction before. His Capital Research Global Investors owns more than eight percent of Time Warner shares, which means he gets plenty of access to Bewkes and his lieutenants.

But here’s the thing: The body language from Time Warner executives in recent months makes me think they intend to keep at least part of their magazine business in the family. More than body language, actually: “Time Warner without People? I can’t imagine it,” one well-placed Time Warner official told me recently.

That said, I won’t be surprised if the publisher employs fewer people, producing fewer magazines in the future.

Time Warner officials have repeatedly said that Time Inc. has too many titles: The magazine unit publishes 23 magazines in the U.S. How many can you name? And last year’s mass layoffs, while unprecedented for the publisher, were still fairly modest compared to other publishers’ cuts. The six percent reduction left Time Inc. with some 9,400 people on the payroll.

But executives at the publisher love to stress, off the record, that its flagship titles–Time, People and Sports Illustrated–are each on track to generate millions of dollars of profit this year, even though ad pages and revenue are down. And while Time Inc. certainly hasn’t figured out its digital business yet, at least some of its print properties could and should do well on the Web, as People.com is already doing.

There are certainly assets that Bewkes and company could dispose of fairly easily. For instance, its U.K.-based IPC Media unit, which handles many of the 90-plus titles it publishes outside the U.S., is frequently brought up as a sale candidate. But I’d be surprised if he got rid of Time Inc. and its iconic brands altogether.

For the record, here’s how Time Inc. performed in the first half of the year. The company has already said it expects similar numbers for the remainder of 2009 (click table below to enlarge).

The numbers come from Nielsen’s quarterly “Three Screen” report, which measures eyeballs watching video on TV, on the Web and on mobile devices. And just like the report Nielsen put out three months ago, it shows that even while Americans gobble up more online video, they’re still watching as much TV as they ever have. More, even: The number of viewers increased by 0.9 percent, while the time they spent watching TV increased 1.5 percent.

Here’s how the numbers break down (click tables below to enlarge):

Total number of viewers:

Time spent viewing:

Two different theories, which are not mutually exclusive, may explain the ever-increasing amount of video we’re supposedly gorging on:

• We’re out of work or underemployed, and we’re filling those hours with sitcoms and dogs-on-skateboard clips.
• We’re multitasking and gorging on all of this stuff at the same time.

On that last theory: Nielsen says 57 percent of us are spending at least an hour a month watching Web video and TV at the same time. We’re much more likely to turn on the TV while we’re Web-surfing than vice versa, though.

No surprise, by the way, to see that people are spending more time watching Web video. But interesting to note that while the universe of mobile video watchers has increased, they’re spending less time watching.

For what it’s worth, Nielsen says that short-form clips–like those from Google’s (GOOG) YouTube–make up 83 percent of Web video viewing, while “name-brand TV network content” makes up the majority of mobile video. Note that Hulu, the joint venture between News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox, GE’s (GE) NBC and Disney’s (DIS) ABC, doesn’t have a mobile option, so it can’t claim credit for those eyeballs.

Too many numbers! Time for video. Here’s a clip of the Minnesota Vikings’ (!) Brett Favre from this week’s “Monday Night Football” game. This one has been seen more than half a million times, but there’s no way it’s legal. So it will go down sooner or later–both the NFL and ESPN are pretty zealous about this stuff.

But right now it’s promoted for all to see on YouTube’s homepage. Which means there are still some kinks in the company’s vaunted “ContentID” program.

While Squires solves that riddle, he’ll leave his day job as head of the “news business unit” (Time, Fortune, Money, etc.). In his place will be… Moore, who is already running the company’s style group.

I chatted briefly via email with Squires, who is good-natured about the assignment. But I have to take issue with him (and everyone else who uses this example) re iTunes. Apple (AAPL) didn’t prove that people are willing to pay for content online–we’d already seen that (at The Wall Street Journal, among other examples). Apple proved that people are willing to pay for portions–that would be songs–of products that were previously only sold in bundles–that would be CDs.

You can debate whether this was terrible for the music industry or simply the least-bad option. But I don’t think it makes sense to compare the experience of the music industry with news and other Web content that people aren’t used to paying for in any form.

Here’s my Q&A with Squires:

MediaMemo: I’m struck by Ann’s “genie” reference–are we meant to take that in a tongue-in-cheek way, or do you folks really think you can put the free-content genie back in the bottle? Or am I misinterpreting that?

John Squires: We’re not unrealistic about the challenge, but iTunes showed people will pay for something attractively packaged and fairly priced that they once got for free….We also wanted to get your attention. So I guess we’re genies.

MM: Do you imagine that Time Inc. will be taking content that’s currently available for free online and putting it behind a pay wall? Or are you more focused on creating new products you can charge for?

JS: This is part of what we’ll be testing. Certainly some online content will remain free because we’re eager to keep our large online audiences (over 26 million Nielsen uniques) and successful advertising model. Some other online content may be subscription-based. And the content we create for mobile readers will be a completely new experience, with different design and functions that we think consumers will want to pay for.

MM: Haven’t heard Time Inc.’s voice in the “Google isn’t playing fair” chorus. How much, if any, energy are you spending on getting the search engine to help you/take less from you, etc.?

JS: We’re not part of that chorus at the moment.

MM: Is this a permanent assignment or will you go back to News at some point?

JS: We’ll see what comes out of this assignment.

And here’s the companywide memo from Moore:

To:       Time Inc. Employees

From:   Ann Moore

Re: How to Put the Genie Back Into the Bottle; Special Assignment for John Squires

It won’t be a revelation to any of you that the publishing business is changing rapidly. While print magazines are not going away, and while we have built vibrant websites with over 26 million unique visitors and 750 million pages views each month, it’s increasingly clear that finding the right digital business model is crucial for the future of our business. We need to develop a strategy for the portable digital world and to refine our views on paid content.

Given the magnitude of the opportunity, I have asked John Squires to take on a new role and devote his full time efforts this summer to developing the best business plan for the future. John’s qualifications for this assignment are ideal. He has a strong background in consumer marketing and digital content and has stature in the publishing industry, as well as with digital software and hardware companies. It is likely we will be seeking partners and allies in our quest to ‘put the genie back into the bottle’.

As many of you know, we are currently pursuing four related initiatives:

1.    Evolving our current website businesses by identifying and developing consumer revenue streams.

2.    Accelerating the creation of applications for smartphone platforms.

3.    Developing new products and business models for portable digital readers.

4.    Exploring partnerships with other publishers to develop the optimal retail store for our digital products.

John will need the support of many, including Consumer Marketing, Legal, Strategy and Business Development, and the Time Inc. titles. Please pitch in with all your resources available when he calls.

During this assignment, similar to the role I’m playing at the Style and Entertainment Group, I will assume responsibility for the News Business Unit.

A.M.

Or more accurately, it’s going to start tinkering with the notion.

Time Inc. EVP John Squires, who floated the idea with reporters yesterday, teased it out a bit for Silicon Alley Insider: “Certain content area of our sites will try some pay tests, just to see what will drive consumers to get out their wallets or subscribe to one of our magazines.”

PaidContent’s Staci Kramer got a Time Inc. official to provide an equally vague take: “There is nothing specific to point to now but you can expect some experiments within six to eight months. We’re also looking closely at devices and applications and pricing and business models associated with those.”

The upshot: You’re going to see more and more publishers at least fiddle with the notion of getting readers to pay for something online. The New York Times (NYT), for instance, has been publicly musing about this for some time now.

And bear in mind that lots of publishers never stopped trying to get consumers to pay up. Disney’s ESPN.com (DIS) for instance, has sold an “Insiders” premium subscription alongside its free stuff for many years.

And sports may be a natural place for Time Inc. to try an upsell. Yahoo Sports, which charges a premium for its fantasy sports offering, has seen annual revenue increases of more than 20% for years — including this year — according to Jim Pitaro, who runs Yahoo’s (YHOO) sports and entertainment group.

Meanwhile, here’s a way to get a sense of what Time Inc. really wanted to talk about yesterday — the decks they used in their presentations. In order, the slides are from Squires; Time.com managing editor Josh Tryangiel; CNNMoney.com SVP Jonathan Shar; EW.com managing editor Cyndi Stivers;  and SI Digital VP Ken Fuchs.

TIME_DigitalShowcase_031809 – Get more Business Documents

CNNMoney_DigitalShowcase_031809 – Get more Business Documents

Squires_DigitalShowcase_031809 – Get more Business Documents

CNNMoney_DigitalShowcase_031809 – Get more Business Documents

EW_DigitalShowcase_031809 – Get more Business Documents

SIGOLF_DigitalShowcase_031809 – Get more Business Documents

It’s hard to see how the Washington Post Co. (WPO), the magazine’s owner, could do anything else. Newsweek loses money, and ad revenue at the magazine has been in free-fall throughout the year: Down 13 percent in Q3, 21 percent in Q2 and 15 percent in Q1. The Wall Street Journal has details:

Newsweek magazine is planning staff cuts as part of a major makeover that is likely to result in a slimmer publication with fewer subscribers and more photos and opinion inside its pages, according to people close to the magazine.

The Washington Post Co. business is expected to outline the cuts Thursday in two companywide meetings. They will come from an extension of voluntary buyouts offered in the spring, when Newsweek shed 111 jobs.”

Also on tap: A move to reduce the magazine’s circulation, which is supposed to make its remaining readers more appealing to advertisers, and a continued effort to “focus…less on costly news gathering than on driving discussion of the day’s issues.”

That’s not a terrible strategy for the Internet era, and most weekly publications are headed that way–including Time Warner’s (TWX) Time, which just drastically cut back its international news operations. At some point, though, someone’s going to have to make sure that there’s at least one media company employing actual reporters to go find out what happened–citizen journalists and Twitterers aren’t going to cut it.

Note to Newsweek staffers: If you want to report details about your own workplace, you have a forum here. You can reach me directly at peter@allthingsd.com. If you want to be completely anonymous, which is understandable but less useful to me (I won’t have any way of reaching you for follow-up) you can use the blind tip box here.

While it’s true that Time Warner’s (TWX) magazine unit is embattled, there are bright spots in the portfolio. Take People.com: The gossip magazine has always been one of Time’s strongest performers (good luck trying to find a discounted subscription). Now its companion Web site is, too.

The site boasts 8.6 million unique monthly visitors, per comScore (SCOR), up 36 percent in the last year, and generates a staggering 700 million page views per month–per Omniture (OMTR). Meanwhile, once-hot sites like TMZ.com (another Time Warner property) have tailed off.

Much of the credit for that goes to Mark Golin, the awesomely sharp and frumpy editor best known as the man behind Maxim magazine’s rise, way back in the late 1990s. He’s successfully broadened the site beyond just Britney/Paris/Lindsay news by adding features like a game channel, a shopping channel and the like.

One of the most successful expansions came via acquisition: When People.com bought Celebrity Baby Blog back in May, it was generating 6.9 million page views per month. Now it’s doing 30 million, Time execs say. And before my fellow journobloggers dismiss the work that the people at Celebrity Baby Blog do, ask yourself this: Did you know that Ashlee Simpson has named her kid Bronx Mowgli? Aren’t you glad you know now?

In any case, all those page views are translating into actual dollars–not digital pennies, as NBC’s Jeff Zucker would say. Time Inc. says People.com is now one of its 10 most profitable titles–that’s out of all of the company’s 174 properties, on or offline.

The company won’t attach numbers to that claim, of course. But given that Time Inc. generated $162 million in operating profit during a very lousy third quarter, you can get some sense of the property’s success. Now Time just needs many more just like it.

The New York Post’s Keith Kelly has already reported that layoffs are in motion at People, Time and Sports Illustrated over the next few days; I am told that cuts are also coming to Fortune magazine today or tomorrow. Here’s a Sports Illustrated employee’s take on the situation there:

We are all expecting the hatchet Thursday or Friday. Morale is dismal. One colleague of mine, uber golf writer John Garrity, told several of us that he’s taking the package but will continue on for a while as a special contributor. We expect two or three photo editors to go, and two or three members of the Sport’s Illustrated Latino staff (the Spanish language SI publication, which posted a net profit of approx. one million in ’07 and broke even in ’08, was inexplicably shuttered). Also photographers are rumored to be being cut to half time service and members of our copy desk have been asked to take up to a 30% pay reduction for which they will work fewer hours. Charlie Leerhsen, one of our two executive editors, told a few staff members that he was going to be leaving.”

In other layoff/shutdown news:

• I am told that Forbes (where I worked for many years), is in the final stages of planning cuts as it prepares to merge the editorial operations of its magazine and Web site units. Last month the company began integrating its business groups and laid off about three dozen people in the process.
• GE’s (GE) NBC Universal has laid off at least 30 people in its sales group, reports AdAge. The cuts are part of a previously reported mandate from NBC CEO Jeff Zucker to cut three percent of the company’s budget. The Post says another 80 people could be fired at CNBC.
• Barry Diller’s IAC (IACI) is breaking up its programming group, which includes ventures like College Humor, 236.com and Tina Brown’s DailyBeast.com. Some but not all of the sites will be closed down or sold off. PaidContent has details.

As always, I value reader input: You can reach me directly at peter@allthingsd.com. If you want to be completely anonymous, you can use the blind tip box here.

Kelly’s number for today “may be on the high side,” a person familiar with the matter counsels me. In any event, I expect to have more details later in the day. As always, I value your input, and I keep all correspondence anonymous: peter@allthingsd.com.

In the meantime, an update on this week’s cuts: I’m told Time Europe editor William Green and senior editor James Graff were laid off via phone yesterday, and that more cuts in the London office are expected today. And four-year-old Cottage Living magazine has been shut down, which means that 38 out of 47 people who worked on that title are out of work; the remainder will be placed elsewhere in the group. Announced along with the job cuts today were the departures of executives from Cooking Light and Southern Progress. Chris Allen, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Cooking Light is resigning his position, as are Southern Progress execs Bruce Akin, Karla Hardy and Dick Gardner. Here are the memos:

November 18, 2008

To:Time Inc. Employees
From:Sylvia Auton
Re: Cottage Living Magazine

I regret to inform you that we will no longer be producing Cottage Living magazine. The November/December 2008 issue, on newsstands now, will be the magazine’s last. Cottageliving.com will also shutdown. However, the company will keep the brand alive in one of its other leading shelter titles and these plans will be finalized over the next few weeks.

Since its inception, Cottage Living attracted significant advertiser support and fostered a loyal following among readers. However, the economic downturn has particularly affected the shelter market and while the brand was genuinely loved by readers and advertisers alike, the economy inhibited its ability to grow and therefore, sadly, we had to make the decision to close it.

Cottage Living launched with a unique editorial mission. Its readership celebrated community and character over conformity, personality rather than perfection, and informality instead of pretension. The brand’s tagline: ‘life just right,’ showed how one could ‘live large,’ even luxuriously, in a lighter footprint.

Launched in September 2004 with a circulation of 500,000, the brand quickly grew to 650,000 in January/February 2005. One year later, Cottage Living increased its rate base to 900,000, and then to one million in January/February 2007. Cottage Living also produced many one-time special-interest publications including Cottage Christmas and Cottage Makeovers.

Cottage Living also received many industry accolades including AdWeek’s ‘2005 Startup of the Year’ and Advertising Age’s ‘2005 Launch Worth Watching.’ It was also named to AdWeek’s ‘Hot List’ 10 Under 50 list for two consecutive years: 2006 and 2007.

I want to thank the many dedicated and talented Cottage Living staffers. It was developed, edited and published by some of the best talent in the business and we can remain proud of its many achievements.

S.A.”

Subject: Staff Announcement
To:       Lifestyle Business Unit Employees
From:   Sylvia Auton and Steve Sachs
Re:       Staff Announcement  

With the departure of Bruce Akin, we’re pleased to announce that Bruce Larson will assume the role of Senior Vice President and the lead executive in charge of SPC operations for Time Inc. He will be responsible for the general management of all operations in the Birmingham office, Oxmoor House and Southern Living at HOME.

Bruce joined the company in 1991 as a manager of corporate reporting. Over the last 17 years he has been promoted numerous times and has held jobs in a variety of areas, from corporate accounting to IT to consumer marketing and production.

During his tenure with Southern Progress, Bruce has shown outstanding decision-making and leadership skills and has been a key player responsible for the strong financial growth the company has enjoyed over the years.

Please join us in congratulating Bruce on his new assignment.”

To:  Southern Progress Colleagues
From:  Bruce Larson

I regret to announce that two longtime, trusted Southern Progress colleagues, Karla Hardy and Dick Gardner, have decided to retire at the end of the year.

Karla has been a steady presence in our advertising production circles ever since she joined the company in 1977 as advertising traffic manager for Progressive Farmer. In 1985, she accepted a position as assistant to the editor and advertising/production coordinator for Southern Living Classics, which merged later that year with the newly acquired Southern Accents, where she eventually moved up to advertising production manager. When we launched Coastal Living, Karla began working on both titles, and in 2007 she began helping manage advertising production for Cottage Living as well. And let’s not forget her work on Entrée. With her incredible depth of knowledge of advertising production and her keen eye for detail, it’s no wonder that Karla is so highly regarded. She knows how to best position each ad for space efficiency and visibility, and she knows how to work with our sales staff and advertisers to ensure that everyone is happy with the outcome.

Dick began his Southern Progress career just nine months after Karla, back in 1978. He spent the first 13 years of his SPC career on the corporate side, managing building operations, office services, and purchasing, before moving to the magazine side of the business as financial manager for Southern Living and Southern Accents. In 1995, he was named general manager of Southern Accents. One short year later, he added responsibility for the soon-to-be-launched Coastal Living. In 2004, he was named vice president and general manager for Coastal Living alone, and in 2007 he took on the GM role for Cottage Living as well. Dick is well respected for his wisdom, leadership. and kindness, not to mention his astute business sense. He knows his titles—and his staff—inside and out and never fails to find the right solution to any challenge. Plus, he has a great sense of humor.

There have been several times over the years when both Dick and Karla have been counted on to work on more than one title—a sure sign of how highly they’re valued around here—and each did so while managing to maintain a positive, calm outlook. Please join me in thanking them for all they’ve done for us and letting them know how much they’ll be missed.”

Subject: Staff Announcement
To: Lifestyle Business Unit Employees
From:  Sylvia Auton
Re:  Staff Announcement

After careful consideration, Chris Allen, Senior Vice President and Publisher of Cooking Light, has decided to leave the company.

A 26-year veteran, Chris first joined Cooking Light in 1991 as eastern advertising sales director and quickly rose through the ranks. Chris’ leadership and expertise resulted in enormous successes for the Cooking Light brand: Under his direction, Cooking Light has grown to become the world’s largest epicurean and healthy lifestyle magazine.

During his tenure, Cooking Light was named to AdWeek’s Hot List four times, Advertising Age’s ‘A List,’ Capell’s Circulation Report’s prestigious ‘Triple Play Award’ three times, and ‘Most Notable Launch of the Past 20 Years’ awarded by Media Industry Newsletter and Samir Husni in 2005. Chris also presided over the launch of several groundbreaking marketing campaigns, including The Cooking Light Cruise, the Cooking Light Fit House, and Cooking Light Supper Clubs.

An avid cook and exercise enthusiast, Chris lived the Cooking Light brand. He’s also a rock star: The Cooking Light band, Way Past Close, has performed throughout New York City and Birmingham to clients and colleagues.

Earlier in his career, Chris spent eight years at PEOPLE rising from salesperson to New York divisional sales manager.

Please join me in thanking Chris for his many contributions to Southern Progress and Time Inc. and wishing him the very best.”

After asking about 100 editorial employees to give up their jobs today, Time Inc. announced a round of involuntary job cuts: Time Warner’s (TWX) magazine publisher said it is firing 92 people in an overhaul of its consumer marketing and sales group.

Time Inc. hasn’t ever formally announced the number of cuts it intends to make this fall, but company officials say the New York Times’ report that pegged the number at 600 to be a reasonable estimate. By that count, there are another 400 or so positions that will disappear in the coming weeks.

Below, the reorg memo from consumer marketing and sales EVP Brian Wolfe, who reports directly to Time Inc CEO Ann Moore (pictured) and oversees a team that sells across all of the company’s titles.

TO: Time Inc. Consumer Marketing and Sales
FROM: Brian Wolfe
RE: Reorganization

I’d like to provide further detail regarding our new Consumer Marketing & Sales organization.

These changes were driven both by the current economic landscape, as well as the opportunity to be more focused on activities that drive our bottom line.

Each of our magazine and digital properties will be assigned to a brand leader, who will set strategic direction for our consumer activities and manage the P&L for their respective magazines. Their focus will include net paid and rate base planning, research, relationships with edit and ad sales, audience development, branding, and newsstand. Titles that already have substantial partnership volume will maintain partnership sales/operations teams; the balance of partnership activities will be managed by Synapse. Each brand leader (VP) will manage a ‘group’ of magazines, which align with the 3 different business units that Ann Moore detailed in her memo 2 weeks ago. Consumer Marketing activities for all U.S. Time Inc. magazines will now be managed in New York.

VP’s of each of the business units are detailed below for the print publications and related websites:

· Holley Cavanna, Vice President, Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, Essence
· Steve Crowe, Vice President, Southern Living, Coastal Living, Southern Accents
· Carrie Goldin, Vice President, Real Simple, All You, This Old House
· Matthew Hoffmeyer, Vice President, Fortune, Money, Fortune Small Business
· Holley Klingel, Vice President, Sunset
· Jennifer Ogden-Reese, Vice President, People, People en Espanol, Stylewatch
· Jose Perez, Vice President, Cooking Light, Health, Cottage Living
· John Reese, Vice President, Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Golf
· Nate Simmons, Vice President, TIME, TIME Canada, Time For Kids

As you know, consumer marketing has played a key role in the past 2 years in helping to drive growth in our digital audiences. The role of consumer marketing in supporting Time Inc.’s digital growth will only increase in the future. Reflecting that goal, each business unit will be supported by an audience development expert who will report directly into their business unit VP. Reporting on our magazines digital activities has also become a key skill in consumer marketing. We will continue to provide this critical function for our websites by forming a digital reporting team, which will report to Holley Cavanna. In addition, Michael Dub’s audience development and analytics team, which was formerly part of TII, will now be part of consumer marketing and will also report to Holley Cavanna.  With this entire digital team in place, I feel very confident about our ability to apply our skills and expertise to this critical piece of Time Inc.’s future growth.

Going forward, all of our marketing efforts will be centralized in a team led by Sarah Jack, Vice President, Marketing. Sarah’s team will manage the new business and retention activities for all of our magazines. There will be a new business and retention director reporting to Sarah and each business unit will have a new business and retention manager and associate to support their marketing activities. This group represents the best marketers in our division and will enable us to further develop and leverage expertise in these areas. I expect this team to develop a balanced testing agenda, share best practices and results, and be singularly focused on bringing the best marketing possible to our brands. Our multi-title marketing efforts, which have continually resulted in volume growth at Time Direct Ventures (TDV) in recent years, will be managed by a team which will now report in to Sarah. In addition, an agency department and our List Rental team, led by Christine Slusarek, will also report to Sarah.

Jeff Blatt will continue in his role as TDV President and will manage a group that will focus on continuing to grow our fundraising and scouting volume. In addition, our Maghound team, led by Dave Ventresca, will continue to report to Jeff.

Sarah Jack, the brand VPs, Jeff, in his role as TDV President and Synapse CEO, Time Warner Retail (TWR) CEO & President Rich Jacobsen, and QSP CEO & President Kerry Hatch will all report to me.

As I mentioned last week, Howard Rosen has joined our team as SVP, Group General Manager, reporting to Howard Averill, Time Inc. CFO.  Reporting to Howard will be:

· Sean McDermott, Vice President, Finance.  Sean will continue to be responsible for the roll-up of our consumer marketing financials and will also manage a centralized group of planners, who will be assigned to individual business units.  In addition, Sean will manage the consumer marketing business office.

· John Tighe, Vice President, Promotions, Production & Operations.
· Scott Breininger, Vice President, Marketing Operations, which includes Online Operations, Payment, Database Marketing Services, Telemedia and Fulfillment.
· Bill Miller, Executive Director, Legal

Also reporting to Howard will be the CFOs of TWR, Synapse and QSP as well as our customer service and fulfillment operations in the United States and abroad, led respectively by Tim Adams and Sue Knights.

Howard’s groups will now support activities for all of Time Inc.’s U.S. magazines. These departments have historically been a critical part of our competitive advantage, and their continued expertise and excellent work will remain key components to our future growth.

The changes we announced today represent a significant departure from the way we currently operate. Critical to our future success will be the following principles:

We will be a marketing and operations division. We will meet our financial and compliance objectives, but will spend far less time on financial reporting and variance analysis. Ownership and reporting of the P&L will reside solely within our division. We will bring extreme focus to marketing and innovation and to the execution of our marketing plans. By doing so, we will continually improve our P&L.

We will have relentless focus on activities and levers that drive the business. We;ll have to prioritize and make difficult decisions on how we spend our time and allocate our resources. We need to be diligent about setting goals and not be distracted by requests or activities that are not in direct support of these goals.

We will need even greater emphasis on teamwork and collaboration. We are already good at sharing information and leveraging best practices. Success depends on our ability to be comfortable working well within and across functions and teams. We will also need to be great partners with the management teams of the 3 new Business Units that have been formed at Time Inc.

For our staff, this structure balances the ability to work on our brands, while continuing to improve skills and grow expertise in each of your functional areas.

We have a lot to be proud of. We work for a very profitable company, with incredible brands and talented, smart people. Our division makes a significant contribution to Time Inc.’s bottom line. Our circulation profits are higher this year, when most other print publishers are in decline. And we have continued to launch new products and innovate despite a tough economic environment.

As we move forward in this new organization, we do so without many talented colleagues and friends in New York, Birmingham and Menlo Park. These decisions are never easy, nor are they taken lightly. Please join me in thanking them for their contributions to consumer marketing and Time Inc. and in wishing them well as they move on to the next chapter in their careers.

I have tremendous confidence in this new structure, our people, and our ability and determination to meet our goals. I look forward to working with each of you to successfully grow our business.

Brian”

Last month, the Time Warner (TWX) magazine unit announced a sweeping reorg that is expected to cost about 600 employees their jobs. But the details have yet to be announced.

That started changing today, but my understanding is that the cuts won’t be accomplished with one swing of the ax, which is unfortunate for everyone involved.

Today’s memos will at least add some clarity, and I’ll republish them here as I get them, with your help. As always, I keep all correspondence anonymous: peter@allthingsd.com.

So far I’ve collected memos from four of the five titles, but am still looking for details on Money. Time, SI, People and Fortune are looking for 90 volunteers to leave their jobs.

Bear in mind that these memos only deal with editorial jobs. I’m assuming there are also significant cuts planned on the business side. Details as I get them.

[UPDATE: Some cuts on the business side, too. The company has laid off 92 people from its consumer sales and marketing group.]

Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer doesn’t spell out the number of volunteers he’s looking for in his note, but I’m told he informed staff today that he needs about a dozen positions eliminated:

Unfortunately, we will need to reduce staff at Fortune in the writer-editor, writer-reporter, designer, editorial assistant and copy coordinator Guild categories, and we are asking for a number of volunteers to leave the company with a severance package. If you are interested in confidentially exploring this option, please contact Dawn Dunlop in HR at [redacted] or Edith Fried at [redacted] by Friday, November 21, 2008. If we do not have enough volunteers, we will need to begin a process of involuntary layoffs. For your reference, the Company’s severance formula is in the Guild contract and is also posted on Time Traveler.”

Sports Illustrated needs 40 bodies gone within two weeks, says managing editor Terry McDonnell:

For the reasons outlined in Ann Moore’s reorganization announcement of 10/28/08, the Sports Illustrated Group will reduce the size of its staff across all properties. At the magazine, we will reduce staff in the following guild-covered categories:

• copy editors
• photographers
• designers
• photo equipment technicians
• picture catalogers
• picture researchers
• reporter-researchers
• research assistants
• writer-editors
• writer-reporters

A number of jobs not covered by the guild will also be eliminated at the magazine and across the group.

Approximately 40 guild and non-guild volunteers are needed over the next two weeks to avoid involuntary job eliminations. If the number of volunteers falls short by Monday, December 1, involuntary layoffs will begin.”

People wants to drop 18 editorial employees (via Gawker):

As part of a broad Time Inc. work force reduction, I regret to announce that People magazine will be making cuts in its editorial staff. We are looking for the volunteers to accept severance packages in the following Guild-covered job classifications:

• up to 6 reporter-researchers
• up to 4 Los Angeles-based staff members from among staff correspondents and writer-editors
• up to 4 New York-based staff members from among staff correspondents, writer-editors and writer-reporters
• up to 3 copy editors
• 1 research librarian

We are also looking for up to two Guild-covered volunteers each in the Art Department and photo department, and one in the News Bureau.

In addition to this call for Guild volunteers, non-Guild employees may inquire about the possibility of volunteering for a severance package.

I urge all those interested to contact People’s human resources representatives [redacted] for details regarding their particular package.

In addition to the above cuts, we are looking for savings from full-time staffers interested in working a four-day week (Tuesdays off) for commensurate salary. This call is voluntary, and final decisions will be made based on business needs and management discretion.

The call for volunteers expires on Dec 1. If necessary, after that we will follow the Guild contract procedure for conducting involuntary layoffs in Guild categories.

If you have any questions, please see me or your department heads.”

Time is looking for 20 volunteers (via Newsweek.com editor–and former Time employee–Mark Coatney):

Due to the corporate restructuring, we need to reduce approximately 20 staffers at TIME across the following guild-covered categories: edit traffic assistant, writer-editor, staff correspondent, writer-reporter, reporter-researcher, designer, research cataloger and research librarian.

Volunteers in these positions or any others can raise their hands any time in the next two weeks. If we do not have enough volunteers by Monday, November 24th, we will begin a process of involuntary layoffs.”

So this report from the New York Times makes perfect sense:

Just five months after saying it would drop its frequency to every other week, U.S. News & World Report has decided instead to become a monthly magazine, employees said on Tuesday.

Less than a year ago, U.S. News still published weekly, but this year it began publishing less often, and in June, it announced that, come January, it would publish every two weeks. Executives conceded then that the magazine had ceased to be a newsweekly competing directly with Time and Newsweek.”

This may be dispiriting for U.S. News staffers who thought they were working for a news organization, but it makes plenty of sense as a business decision.

Lists, like the publication’s well-regarded education rankings, do well both in print and online, and are easy to sell to advertisers. And being the third player in a category where your competitors are getting crushed anyway is no place to be.

Bear in mind that Newsweek and Time have relatively deep-pocketed parent companies–the Washington Post Co. (WPO) and Time Warner (TWX), respectively–to help the titles as they try to survive. U.S. News relies on real estate biggie Mort Zuckerman, who has bigger worries these days.

One of note for MediaMemo readers: The departure of Ned Desmond, a longtime Time Inc. vet who was most recent title was President of Time Inc. Interactive. Ned’s bio is here; nice-to-know-you memo from Ann Moore follows:

To:        Time Inc. Employees

A.M.                 J.S.