With both News Corp. and Time Warner sending their publishing divisions into the cold world to make it on their own, the comparisons are unavoidable and, at this point, not favorable to Time Inc. Whereas Rupert Murdoch loves print products more than his own children, Time Inc. has no such patron, or even a CEO. And while News Corp. will give its publishing half a $1.82 billion gift to start, bringing their cash reserves up to $2.6 billion, according to Bloomberg, “analysts predict that Time Inc. will take on up to a billion dollars in debt.”
Murdoch’s own Wall Street Journal has a look today at the expected Time Inc. growing pains: Revenue is expected to decline for at least another year, if not two, necessitating even more staff reductions and potentially a move out of the legendary Time & Life Building. It won’t be easy for Murdoch either, but he’ll have a head start.
