Time Inc. to Layoff 600

We told you last week about major layoffs at Time Inc.'s Southern Progress Magazines and it looks like they may have been an early warning sign for larger cuts to follow. The NYTis reporting that Time Inc. has plans to cut 6% of its workforce, the equivalent of 600 positions and "revamp the organization in a way that could radically alter the culture at the company." Apparently none of the titles are being cut, however an already planned overhaul by Ann S. Moore, Time Inc.'s chairman and chief executive had to be sped up to cope with the fast-changing media environment. Says Moore:

This is a challenge, unlike any we've seen before...And after much careful study and consultation with many of you who run our businesses, I have concluded that it is no longer possible to operate our company with the same decentralized management structure that served us so well during our many years of sustained growth.

As Gawker's Ryan Tate points out perhaps this shouldn't come as such a shock considering the big cuts the magazine has had to make in the last few years, though in the current media environment it's hard not to perceive it as the latest, loudest death knell to the end of print magazines. Further details regarding the changes and reorganization to come, after the jump.

Time Inc.'s 24 magazines in the United States and their Web sites will be organized into three divisions: news, which will include Fortune, Money, Time, and Sports Illustrated; lifestyle titles, which include Real Simple, Cottage Living, Coastal Living, and Southern Living, among others; and style and entertainment, which includesPeople, InStyle, and Entertainment Weekly, which has suffered a severe downturn and is likely to be whittled down under the new structure.

Heads of the news and entertainment units will continue to report to John Huey, the editor in chief of Time Inc. The lifestyle unit, which may be run by Bill Shapiro, who has been development editor, will report to the business side of the company. Martha Nelson, who is editor of the People Group, will head the entertainment division.