Time Inc reorg still lacks major changes needed for current climate

-BETH Back in March Mediawiredaily.com laid out what we thought was needed to tune up Time Inc and it's business divisions. We mentioned that Time Inc was just too big and needed to be cut down in size. Over the past two years, Time Inc CEO Ann Moore has been trimming things at the magazine giant but she was focused mostly on reducing the head count. We mentioned in our article back in March that Moore needs to also focus on the many businesses operating under the Time Inc umbrella and toy with the idea of selling, or consolidating some of these businesses. Well earlier this week Moore again rolled some heads, a reported 600 or more, but structurally the company remains the same as far as it's businesses. Under the reorg, effective Oct. 29, Time Inc.’s 24 magazines and related Web sites will be grouped into three business units based on similarity of audience and advertisers. Each will have its own general manager who will report to Time Inc. evp and CFO Howard Averill. Unfortunately for Ms. Moore, we already see a problem with this reorg. She has some what detached herself from the heartbeat of the company and has inserted a middle man Time Inc. evp and CFO Howard Averill. In our opinion, she should have these three new business heads reporting directly to her, and keep the company's money man focused on money issues. Another major mistake in our opinion is Moore taking leadership of the entertainment group comprising People, InStyle, Entertainment Weekly and Essence. This will no doubt subtract some attention away from the big picture duties of the CEO. We know this whole thing is to save money but appointing yourself to head a magazine group within the company you're CEO of is just setting yourself up. Bottom line, Time Inc is still in need of a major shake up. But it looks as though this major shake up will come after Ann Moore moves on.