Southern Progress: 41.4 percent staff reduction in 11 months

Summer was a brutal season for Southern Progress.

After laying off 200 of its 700 employees during the fourth quarter of 2008 — a 28.6 percent cut — the Birmingham-based Time Inc. operation / magazine publisher shed 90 positions total this summer.

Southern Progress sold Southern Living at Home to Entertaining at Home in July, lightening the load by 70 employees (of whom 29 promptly were let go by the new owner earlier this month).

It also ceased publication on Southern Accents magazine, letting 20 staffers go.

With 90 positions cut from the 500 remaining, Southern Progress has tightened up staff by another 18 percent in the last 60 days, or 41.4 percent in the past 11 months.

So, at Southern Progress in the past 11 months:

• 290 positions eliminated
• 41.4 percent staff reduction
• 2 magazines folded
• 1 operation sold

The one bright spot: Southern Living’s circulation increased 1.35 percent in the first half of 2009, making it No. 19 among U.S. magazines (and No. 4 among Time Inc. titles). (Of course, Reader’s Digest declaring bankruptcy makes it actually No. 18 across the nation.)

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