CEO Ann Moore told several hundred grim-faced executives at a recent quarterly management meeting that she is demanding $100 million in cost savings in 2003.
It’s a sign that the publisher, which owns People, Time, Sports Illustrated, In Style, Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, Money and other titles – which generate close to $5 billion in annual revenue – expects the economic outlook to remain unpredictable for the foreseeable future.
“The economy, consumer confidence and the state of world affairs remain the unknowns,” Moore said. “And crystal balls don’t work.”
The call for $100 million in savings comes after the company’s move to stem red ink by shutting two money-bleeding titles – SI Women and Mutual Funds – in the fourth quarter of this year.
Business 2.0 continues to lose money, but there are no plans to shut it at the moment.
In a bid to solve the circulation crisis that has gripped the industry, the company is putting all its circulation efforts under a single operation headed by Brian Wolfe.
He’ll be president of Time Consumer Marketing, replacing Jeremy Koch, who is taking a sabbatical.
In the sweeping reorganization announced Dec. 12, Wolfe will get much more control over circulation efforts at the individual magazines than his predecessor.
Moore said she is going to increase staffing levels on consumer marketing in a bid to find new ways to sell magazines now that subscription offers tied to sweepstakes have all but evaporated as a source of readership.
Consumer marketing is expected to be one of the few areas adding people next year.
Moore is not asking for firings yet, but is looking to cut via cost controls and personnel attrition, said one source.
The insider said not to expect new magazine launches in the first half of the year, but there are still a few magazine ideas percolating at the company.
“They are definitely going to test things, and I’d be surprised if there wasn’t something before the end of the year,” said the source.
Among those looking at new ideas are Susan Casey, who was editor-in-chief of SI Women when it closed and has agreed to stay on board and work on development projects, and Mark Golin, a onetime editor of Details and Maxim who has been scouting men’s magazine ideas.
But there is no plan to import laddie title Loaded into the U.S. market from British publisher IPC, which is now Time Inc.-owned.