And the Print Media Die On

katie holmes on in style cover.jpg Last week, you might remember that ELLE Accessories kind of folded, along with a few more print magazines, and CosmoGIRL! died just before that.

Now, Time Inc’s announced that they’re cutting 600 jobs from their company, instituting a total restructuring of the management of their titles (which includes In Style, easily the most widely-read ~~fashion~~ women’s magazine on the market) and will now be regularly lending writers between magazines, presumably to save on pay. And Time’s the world’s largest magazine publisher with 130 books on its roster.

For now, they’re saying that none of their titles are folding. Whether anyone should really believe that remains to be seen. But here’s a thought:

Time is widely regarded as one of the best companies to work for. Anyone who’s ever worked at In Style will go on and on about the hours, the pay, the benefits, and especially the general culture of super nice people who are all sans ‘tude.

But what happens when you strip staffers of their sense of security and inevitably make everyone more competitive for their jobs?

posted by guest

Oct 29, 2008 5:25PM

hello! welcome to the recession. it happens - companies cut corners, lay off people, downsize etc. I'm not surprised that Time is not immune

posted by sarajane

Oct 29, 2008 5:26PM

It is because of the dying magazine industry that websites like you, fashionista, are becoming so important. I recently chose to do a midterm paper about fashionista.com and its strengths for my communications class at my university. We are being taught that as journalism majors, we must look to the internet as the home of our future careers.

Oct 29, 2008 6:08PM

Haha, no. The best thing about working there was the four weeks of vacation plus Xmas - New Years so that you could get out of that place! Maybe it's better under Ariel, w/all the new staffers.

Oct 29, 2008 7:18PM

This is good news for us freelancers.

Oct 29, 2008 9:06PM

yeah... that's pretty much the entire country kids. there's nothing special about people who work for magazines or even websites like you guys. i'm sure you'd feel the same way if you guys didn't have (what i imagine are) very low operating costs - you probably should be concerned anyway.

Oct 29, 2008 10:34PM

Time inc was not good to work for. Long hours. Most people have 3 jobs each. everyone is on "permalance" or "intern" basis. If you get paid though a time card, they take forever to pay you citing that you didnt fill out your time card correctly.