People Magazine Sheds About a Dozen, All You Group Publisher Exits

People magazine lost roughly a dozen staff members to layoffs and buyouts last week, according to people familiar with the matter. The departures come just before Time Inc., owner of People, starts to trade independently of Time Warner on Monday, June 9. People is the largest money maker at Time Inc., comprising nearly 20% of the company's revenue, according to SEC filings. A spokeswoman for People declined to comment specifically on the job reductions. In an email, she said, "We are always looking for ways to improve efficiencies and bring in new skills sets to keep up with our changing business." A broad restructuring at Time Inc. claimed hundreds of jobs earlier this year, but a Time Inc. executive described the cuts at People as "more strategic in nature." Some of the job losses can be chalked up to new editorial leadership at the magazine, where Jess Cagle, former Entertainment Weekly managing editor, took the helm in January, according to another Time Inc. staffer. A spokeswoman for Time Inc. did not respond to an Ad Age email and phone call by press time. In addition to the staff exits at People, Diane Oshin, group publisher of Time Inc.'s All You and Cooking Light magazines, is leaving the company, according to an internal memo sent to staff on Monday. Ms. Oshin is the founding publisher of All You, a magazine dedicated to thrifty living that was introduced in 2004 and whose newsstand sales until recently were restricted to Walmart locations. While other magazines saw readership and ad-page declines during the lean recession years, All You's paid circulation guarantee and print ad pages grew. In an internal memo Monday, Evelyn Webster, exec-VP at Time Inc., said Ms. Oshin has "decided it is time to explore new opportunities." "Diane's numerous contributions to our business have been significant and I thank her for her creativity, tenacity and the significant results she has delivered," she added. Ms. Oshin did not return a message left by Ad Age on Tuesday. Kevin White, publisher of Health magazine and a 20-year-veteran of Time Inc., was promoted to group publisher of Cooking Light, MyRecipes and Health. Ms. Webster will assume direct oversight of All You, with its publisher Suzanne Quint reporting to her. The changes are effective starting June 13, Ms. Webster said in her memo. It's been a busy couple of weeks at Time Inc. Parent Time Warner is spinning off the company -- its less profitable magazine division -- and holding on to its more lucrative TV and film properties. Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp and Chief Content Officer Norman Pearlstine have been pitching investors on the independent company. Time Inc. also just broke a magazine-industry taboo by putting ads, albeit tiny ones, on the covers of Time and Sports Illustrated. And on Sunday, Time Inc.'s Fortune and Money magazines rolled out their own websites. They had been channels on CNNMoney.com when CNN was a corporate sibling, but have been made rivals with CNN's site by the spin-off.

People Magazine Sheds About a Dozen, All You Group Publisher Exits

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