TIME IS UP AT TIME MAG: NEW ROUND OF FIRINGS BEGINS By KEITH J. KELLY --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 21, 2001 --

Time, the flagship magazine of AOL Time Warner, is sharpening its ax.

Unable to get volunteers to step forward to reduce its workforce by 6 percent, Time Managing Editor Jim Kelly has begun the process of firing up to a dozen editorial employees. Two were given the ax on Tuesday and more are expected to follow this week and next. Time magazine's business-side operations already dismissed 12 people earlier in the year.

When the bloodbath is over, it is expected that 38 people will have been whacked at the magazine between the business and editorial side, bringing the downsizing to more than 6 percent of the workforce. It is believed to be the first mass firing at the magazine in a decade, but not the first inside the Time Inc. magazine division.

Fortune this year fired 40. This week, Money.com, the Web site at Money magazine, axed eight people.

The firings are separate from the early-retirement incentive packages that went out in late May to 530 people across Time Inc., the magazine wing of AOL Time Warner that includes People, Sports Illustrated and InStyle.

Several weeks ago, Kelly said he was looking for a 16-person staff reduction on the editorial side. In the current market, few thought the package was sweet enough.

Elaine Rivera, a New York-based correspondent and the unit's Newspaper Guild representative, is believed to be one of the few mulling a buyout. She was unavailable for comment yesterday afternoon.

Kelly would not comment on the matters.

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), June 21, 2001