The Meredith Corporation is planning a corporate bloodbath later this week, with plans to slice between 200 and 300 jobs, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Most of the cuts are expected to hit Time Inc. management, which Meredith acquired in January. Editorial, which usually bears the brunt of these types of cuts, will apparently escape mostly unscathed — for now.
A spokesperson for Meredith declined to comment on the story.
According to the Journal’s Jeffrey Trachtenberg, the layoffs are designed to reduce corporate redundancies between Meredith and its new holdings and trimming Time’s overhead is part of what made the company financially attractive in the first place.
The report also says Meredith is trying to unload other recently acquired properties including Fortune, Time, Sports Illustrated and Money and is not planning any major surgery there for now.
Meredith, a veteran media company, with a stable of magazine and television properties, purchased Time Inc. and its slew of name brand magazines for $2.8 billion. The deal was a major coup for Meredith which had tried and failed twice before to purchase the company.
Meredith’s successful bid was only facilitated by an infusion of $650 million from Charles and David Koch, two of the world’s richest men and generous GOP fundraisers. It remains unclear what the Kochs’ ultimate intentions are in brokering the purchase.