In the second major round of layoffs this year, Barry Diller‘s magazine empire is reorganizing over what it describes as a “rapid” transformation in the media landscape.
His company, People Inc., is cutting 195 staffers primarily in print and website departments, a memo from CEO Neil Vogel to staff stated on Thursday. The firm, formerly titled IAC up until a rebrand this year that emphasizes its flagship title, houses People, InStyle, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Southern Living and Entertainment Weekly and holds significant minority stakes in MGM Resorts and car rental marketplace Turo. The company had 5,156 employees as of its latest 10-K filing last December.
“The rapid changes in media are evident to us all, and require us to be constantly changing as well. We have significantly increased investments in a host of new projects as we continue to align the company with our biggest opportunities,” wrote CEO Vogel in the note to employees. “The vast majority of those affected today are in our print and legacy web businesses, as we continue to evolve for a prosperous future.”
Vogel added that the company has added 320 new employees this year “and we plan to continue making meaningful investments in 2027.” The company plans to have an all-hands meeting to discuss its path forward after People Inc. discloses its quarterly earnings on Nov. 3.
Recently the CEO had described a shift in People Inc.’s business to reorient it from dependence on Google web traffic. “The Google risk is out of the business,” Vogel told a Goldman Sachs investor conference in September. “It’s down to 20 percent of our just web audience, and we’ve built these really diverse audiences and really diverse revenue streams across some of the best brands in the world, and we’re a very strong and healthy business where we sit right now.”
Across all its titles, the company boasts 11 million print subscribers and has plans to launch member-based add-ons like People VIP and a club for Southern Living, Vogel said in September. “We make more content than anybody in our space by magnitudes. It is all made by people. Now we use AI to help processes,” the exec added.
In April, when IAC formally rebranded as People Inc., the company said in a regulatory filing company it would undergo a restructuring that included staff layoffs in order to find an annual savings of $40 million when it was done with the overhaul.
The move arrives a day after People Inc. and MGM Resorts appear to have ended their tie-up talks. Diller’s firm had pursued an $18 billion takeover bid earlier this year in June. It then dropped the bid in September, and MGM then appeared to be pursuing People Inc. A new voting agreement restricts People Inc. from purchasing additional shares once its ownership stake reaches 29.9 percent.
When Diller played his cards for MGM Resorts in June he characterized the attempt to buy a majority stake in the Bellagio owner as a big bet on resorts, casinos and experiences being an “AI proof” proposition for consumers. Unlike, say, some aspects of the media landscape that relies on the open web.
But that bid appears to be in the rearview now. “The discussion between MGM and People ends there,” said MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle in a call with analysts on Wednesday. “Management continues to be focused on the business as clear and consistent.”
