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Time Warner Inc expects more job cuts for magazines

Time Warner Inc said in its annual regulatory filing on Friday that it expects to cut more jobs in its magazine publishing division in the first quarter, resulting in US$10 million to US$20 million in expenses.

Time Inc spokeswoman Dawn Bridges said that the job cuts affected fewer than 100 people, and that most of them had already occurred in various parts of the company. Time Inc has a global work force of more than 10,000.

Time Warner, whose Time Inc division includes the titles People, Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune, said the division incurred US$67 million in restructuring costs last year, partly related to the closure of Life magazine.

Time Warner also owns Warner Bros, Time Warner Cable and several cable channels.

RESTRUCTURING

Belt-tightening efforts continued last year across other parts of the sprawling company, resulting in US$262 million in restructuring costs as 4,400 employees were terminated. That was down slightly from 2006, when the company spent US$295 million as it eliminated 5,600 jobs.

Investors are looking to Jeff Bewkes, who took over as CEO at the beginning of this year, to further streamline Time Warner, which many on Wall Street believe has too cumbersome a structure.

Bewkes said earlier this month that AOL will separate its rapidly declining Internet access business from its online advertising operations, which could prime AOL to be either sold or combined with another online company. Microsoft Corp had expressed interest in AOL two years ago but has since decided to go after Yahoo Inc.

Google Inc owns 5 percent of AOL and has the right to trigger a public offering of its stake beginning this July, although Time Warner could opt to buy back Google's stake instead.

MORE TO GO?

Bewkes also said Time Warner would consider whether to keep its 84 percent stake in Time Warner Cable Inc, its publicly traded cable TV subsidiary.

Time Warner, the world's largest media company by revenues, also disclosed in its filing that it paid US$125 million in cash for a previously announced purchase of an online advertising company called Buy.at.
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