Time Inc. announced on January 18th that it plans to cut 289 jobs at its leading magazines, citing the need for a greater focus on its web sites.

According to NYTimes.com, the move by America’s biggest publisher will see 172 editorial staff and 117 business staff retrenched, from successful magazines including Time,People and Sports Illustrated.

The editorial staff cuts represent more than 5 percent of Time Inc.’s total editorial employees. The article noted that John Huey, editor in chief of Time Inc., said in a memo the cuts were being made to help “move quickly into a future of flexible, multiplatform content.”

We Say: When the country’s newsleader makes a move in January, expect other press sources the follow suit later in the year.

Speaking of suits, the corporate decision-makers at Time Inc. didn’t explain why a focus on web sites means less staff… we wonder if they’ve come up with a way of the publications writing themselves.

Now that would make the news.

One Britney, One writer?

In an aside, NYT also reported that the multi-reporter style of magazines like People may also change.

“People magazine’s article this week on Britney Spears and her “new guy,” model Isaac Cohen, is five paragraphs long. It was reported and written by seven people.

“To be fair, they were long paragraphs. But with layoffs expected this week at Time Inc., which publishes People, such reporter-heavy treatment is headed the way of Kevin Federline, Ms. Spears’s soon-to-be-ex-husband.”

We Say: Let’s make it clear. The Transit Café will have seven people following Britney, always.

iPod, Therefore I Am… but do iPhone?

To a different form of media, and reports say Apple is doing a silly dance, following news of record quarterly profits, aided by impressive Christmas sales of iPods.

The figures, up 78% on the same period a year ago, easily beat Wall Street's estimates. During the final three months of 2006, Apple said it earned $1bn (£507m), compared with $565m in the same period in 2005.

Investors remain optimistic about Apple's future as it reinvents itself as a consumer electronics company.

Meanwhile Apple expects its iPhone, unveiled last week, to sell about 10 million units units in 2008, though some analysts are questioning how well the US$500 phone will fare in the highly mobile market.

We Say: Personally, we listen to our iPod to avoid hearing the phone…

We also wonder – if your 500 buck phone's ring tone is U2’s Beautiful Day, just how great will that sound to your ears, as it crashes in over Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together?

Sorry Apple, but iWonder about that one.