Source: Time Inc. Layoffs Coming to an End, But Trimming the Fat Was Necessary (posted 1/19)

Thursday's layoff of 289 people at Time Inc. brings the total number of casualties at the magazine giant over the past 14 months to about 1,000, but a source said today the company may have reached its limit. "I really think this is it," said the source, who added that moral at the publisher is "good at all."

The most recent batch of layoffs was made across all media properties including Time, Sports Illustrated and People magazines and are a continuation of the publisher's continuing strategy to transform from a print-heavy to a multimedia company. Although the cuts have been tough on employees, the source says they were necessary. "These were absolutely efficiencies that were needed," the source said. "I really do think it was a smart decision on their part. This was just smart business. It's just too bad it came at the expense of the employees. But it was such a unnecessarily, multi-layered organization."

Time Inc. is now trying to model its entire company after some of its smaller divisions, like the Parenting and Time4Media groups, have been run. Those groups "have done so much more with so much less" that the company determined all of its businesses should be run similarly, the source said. "The media landscape is changing so quickly that you can't afford to have people in jobs that are unnecessary anymore," the source said.

Although media reports have said that severance packages for laid off employees have been cut back or eliminated, the source said that's not true. "The benefits at Time Inc. are the best in the industry including its severance packages," the source added. "If people are going to get laid off, they want to be laid off by Time Inc."