IPC Media to restructure with redundancies to follow

It's been a poor week or so for the printed media industry and it is just about to get a whole lot worse after IPC Media announced a restructuring programme that will see its operation consolidate from five to three divisions.

Homes and Gardens, Amateur Photographer, Country Life and Amateur Gardening are just some of the titles within the IPC stable.

Evelyn Webster, CEO of IPC Media, told employees, “Through our iconic print and online brands, IPC delivers huge, powerful audiences to our clients and business partners. However, while our current structure has served us well over many years, it now no longer fully reflects our clients' business needs.

"Reach, as well as the delivery of tightly targeted audiences, has never been more important. By organising IPC by consumer audience, rather than by magazine frequency or subject area, we will create a more market-facing structure, which will also bring greater coherence to our operations.”

The company made eighty staff redundant last Christmas and affected staff will be told of their fate today (Friday 20th Nov).

I understand that the ABC circulation figures (June - July 2009) for consumer mags, due in late Jan/early Feb 2010, will tell us all we need to know about what's happening in the [horticulture?] magazine market - and I am told it's grim.