Time Inc. To Jettison 300 Workers

Time Inc. said it is cutting 300 staffers worldwide through both voluntary buyouts and layoffs in the latest efforts at “re-engineering.”

The media giant, which warned of cost cuts in April after it ditched a lengthy study of whether to sell itself, did not give any breakdown of where it plans to make the cuts, which will hit about 4 percent of the company’s global workforce of 7,500.

But the company’s London-based IPC magazine group, the New York editorial ranks and the Tampa, Fla.-based Time Customer Service Center were said to be among the hardest hit.

About 40 percent of the cuts come from people who accepted voluntary buyout packages, according to one source with the knowledge of the layoffs.

Sources tell Media Ink at The NY Post that about 50 people will be cut from the editorial rolls of magazines that include titles such as People, Time, Sports Illustrated and In Style.

The company in the past has said it is committed to “portfolio rationalization,” but the Tuesday memo didn’t mention a sale of any assets. Sources said McKinsey & Co., the management consulting firm that The Post reported got tapped last month, is still hard at work on that project but the results are still down the road.

CEO Rich Battista in a memo to staffers on Tuesday said he was “re-engineering our cost structure to become more efficient and to reinvest resources in our growth areas…”

“Today we took a difficult but necessary stop in that plan as approximately 300 of our colleagues throughout Time Inc’s global operations will be leaving the company.”