200 Jobs To Go In IPC Restructure
IPC is planning a restructure of its entire operation that will result in the loss of around 200 jobs. The redundancies are being made in order to make the magazine publisher more cost effective. It is understood that jobs are to be shed across all departments.
IPC was bought by its management, led by chief executive Mike Matthew, at the beginning of last year (see IPC Magazines Gains Independence). Matthew’s buyout team, backed by venture capitalist group Cinven, paid £860 million for the company which publishes Marie Claire and Loaded, amongst others.
Since the buyout, however, IPC has closed down its SouthBank special projects department (see IPC Appoints Editor For Woman’s Weekly And Closes SouthBank Publishing Development Division), closed four titles and only launched two, Beautiful Homes and Living etc. Also, Sally O’Sullivan, editor-in-chief of a number of women’s/homes magazines, left to set up the new publisher Cabal Communications. Andrew Sutcliffe partnered O’Sullivan in this venture and between the two of them they sucked a number of key staff away from IPC to join the ranks at Cabal (see Interview – Andy Sutcliffe, Managing Director, Cabal Communications).
The company may need to streamline its operations in preparation for the much-heralded economic slow-down. The restructuring will save IPC around £6 million annually, but the cost of the redundancies will be around £5 million.
In October last year the group bought Link House Media, publisher of 27 specialist magazines, for an undisclosed sum. Directly after the acquisition IPC restructured the management at Link House (see Restructuring At IPC’s Link House), but the group is to be unaffected by this round of changes.
As part of the restructure, IPC’s different divisions – Country & Leisure, Music & Sport, Women’s Weeklies, TV Weeklies and the SouthBank titles – will be devolved from the main group to a certain extent. Each publishing department will be given its own board of directors and will operate as a subsidiary of IPC. Alongside this, marketing expenditure will be increased by 25% in an effort to drive up copy sales.
Commenting on the rationalisation, Matthew says: “During our first year as an independent company we have conducted a thorough strategic review, covering every aspect of the business… The result is that we now have an organisation that understands the challenges and opportunities ahead of it… This restructure is designed to create a radically more effective, market-focused business.
“In a nutshell, we are giving power to the people who actually run the magazines,” added Matthew. He also promises the launch and acquisition of new titles, brand extensions, the expansion of international activities and the development of new media projects and masthead television.
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