Time, HuffPost cut jobs

Time Inc. will drop 300 employees through layoffs or buyouts as the struggling publisher tries to transform its declining print business for the digital age.

The job cuts were announced Tuesday in an internal memo written by CEO Rich Battista, who said a key component of his turnaround strategy is making the company more efficient and reinvesting those resources in growth areas.

'Today we took a difficult but necessary step in that plan,” Battista said in the memo obtained by Bloomberg.

Battista did not specify the areas of the company that will see the cuts, which amount to four percent of Time's total workforce. Before the reduction, Time had about 7,450 employees globally, according to its latest annual report.

Last month, the owner of Sports Illustrated and People announced it is planning to sell some magazines or other properties as it tries to push ahead with a digital strategy and move past months of talks with potential acquirers.

In April, Time announced that it was sticking with its online strategy rather than selling itself after months of negotiations with potential suitors such as Des Moines-based Meredith Corp. and a group that included Pamplona Capital Management and Jahm Najafi.

Like other magazine publishers, Time is struggling to reinvent itself as print advertising dries up and the lion's share of digital advertising dollars goes to Facebook Inc. and Google.

At HuffPost, 39 reporters and editors were laid off Wednesday in connection with Verizon Communications Inc.'s acquisition of Yahoo Inc., according to the union representing the website's editorial staffers.

Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo's core internet business was finalized Tuesday. Yahoo and Verizon's AOL unit merged to create Oath, which includes HuffPost, Yahoo Sports, AOL.com, Makers, Tumblr, Build Studios, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Mail.

Oath did not immediately comment on the layoffs.