WSJ.com - Time Inc. Makes New Bid To Be Big Web Player

WSJ.com - Time Inc. Makes New Bid To Be Big Web Player: "In recent months, Time management has taken steps to dissolve the divisions between its Web and print operations. It has made selling ads online a priority and demanded that writers produce more copy for its Web sites. It is also expanding the sites to include more video, blogs and photographs. Former 'Wonkette' blogger Ana Marie Cox has been hired to write for Time magazine and its revamped Web site, alongside Andrew Sullivan, another well-known blogger and columnist. Time Inc. has even launched an irreverent Web site aimed at young male workers called Office Pirates.
'What's abundantly clear to us is that there is a really attractive, smart readership who are younger than they are older and who get what they are looking for from the Web,' says Time Managing Editor James Kelly.
Driving the newly aggressive effort is a recognition that amid problems for many categories in the print-magazine industry, some core Time Inc. print products are losing steam even as Web competitors are proliferating. Last year, advertising pages at Time magazine, the company's biggest by circulation, slumped 12%, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Fortune was off nearly 10%, and Sports Illustrated dropped 17%. The first two months of this year weren't much better. Most worrying for Time Inc.: a 21% drop at People, which accounts for about one-third of the company's operating profit, after a record year in 2005. Time Inc. executives say they fear some of the declines may be permanent as more money flows to the Internet."