Time magazine pledges no layoffs for 3 months amid pandemic

The billionaire owner of Time magazine has issued a moratorium on layoffs even as other news organizations slash pay amid a coronavirus-inspired ad slump.

“TIME is pledging no layoffs for 90 days,” Time’s editor-in-chief and CEO, Ed Felsenthal, tweeted late Sunday. “We will also continue to ensure our hourly workers are paid while our offices are closed,” Felsensthal added before giving a shout-out to Time’s billionaire owners.

“Grateful for our immensely dedicated employees and the support of our owners Marc and Lynne @benioff in our mission especially at this moment,” Felsenthal said.

Benioff, co-founder of cloud computing giant Salesforce, and his wife, Lynne, worth an estimated $6.4 billion, purchased the magazine and website for $190 million in the fall of 2018. And it’s been in “investment mode” ever since, which means it wasn’t making money even before the coronavirus pandemic crushed advertising sales.

While the coronavirus quarantines have spiked demand for online news, it’s dramatically curtailed what companies are willing to spend to market their wares in newspapers and magazines. BuzzFeed last week announced pay cuts, followed on Monday by USA Today owner Gannett, which unveiled both pay cuts and furloughs.

Separately, Time was forced to postpone its Time 100 event, a lucrative two-day event capped by a red carpet affair at the Jazz at Lincoln Center, later this month. Time now hopes to stage it at an undetermined date in September.