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AOL slashes more jobs
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January 24, 2001: 3:50 p.m. ET
Company to slash 2,000 more jobs, close stores following CNN cuts
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - AOL Time Warner, the newly merged media and Internet conglomerate, said Wednesday it will cut another 2,000 jobs, primarily in its film, Internet, publishing and music divisions, and sell or close its 130 Warner Bros. Studio stores.
About 725 of the job cuts will come from the America Online Internet division based in Dulles, Va., said company spokesman Edward Adler. Warner Music will cut 600 jobs, while magazine publishing division Time Inc. will eliminate 400 positions.
New Line Cinema will cut about 100 jobs, or nearly 20 percent of its work force. New Line has had a poor showing at the box office recently and Michael de Luca was fired as the studio's president last week, with Toby Emmerich replacing him.
 Warner Bros. film studio also will cut 100 positions, while another 100 will come from corporate headquarters.
"The goal is to unify AOL Time Warner, to sharpen its focus, capture synergies for growth and strengthen the integration of the company," Adler said. "We are not cutting into muscle, and these are not across-the-board cuts. It's only where appropriate."
The cuts will bring the total job losses at the newly created company to more than 2,400, or about 3 percent of the work force. The move comes less than a week after AOL Time Warner's CNN news unit -- which includes CNNfn -- announced plans to lay off more than 400 people, or about 10 percent of CNN's work force.
Wall Street has expected AOL Time Warner to slash jobs and streamline operations ahead of an analysts' meeting Jan. 31 when executives will presumably detail how the company will generate the $40 billion in revenue and $11 billion in cash flow, or earnings before interest, tax and amortization that it promised last year.
At Time Inc., the majority of the cuts will come from moving fulfillment
operations from Birmingham, Ala., to existing customer service operations in Tampa, Fla. Part of the cuts will also include layoffs at its Time Life books direct marketing operations in Alexandria, Va. About 50 of those cuts will come from those editing and producing Time Life books, the company said.
At Warner Bros. Film, about 100 jobs will be cut largely as a result of merging AOL entertainment site Entertaindom with Warner Bros. online. Warner Bros. has a total of about 11,000 employees not including the WB television network.
Adler confirmed the New York-based company would close or sell its Warner Bros. Studio stores, which employ another 3,800. Because the stores might be sold, it is uncertain whether employees will be laid off.
After a year of regulatory wrangling, AOL Time Warner closed its $111 billion merger earlier this month.
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Shares of AOL (AOL: Research, Estimates) rose $2.06, or 3.8 percent, Wednesday afternoon to $56.21. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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