Publisher closes key websites

Loaded is one of IPC's core magazine titles

Magazine publishers IPC is scaling back its online operations and shedding three of its main websites, including its online version of lads' mag Loaded.

IPC Media is axing uploaded.com, as well as women's site BEME.com and listings service unmissabletv.com.

Ninety jobs will be lost and the majority of redundancies will be from the loss of staff at the axed sites.

Editorial, sales and technical staff from the company's other online operations will also go, including 11 from the music magazine site NME.com.

But IPC insisted NME.com would not be closing.

"NME's one of our best sites, so there's no way we're going to say goodbye to it," IPC's Odette Sullivan told BBC News Online.

"We've got our 50th birthday coming up next year and so there's lots of focus going on to it."

The company, which also controls some of the UK's most popular titles including Horse and Hound and Marie Claire, is putting the cuts down to a restructuring of the new media side of its business.

The announcement reflects the difficult times the internet and publishing industries have been experiencing with a downturn in advertising revenue.

IPC was bought by media giant AOL Time Warner last month for £1.12bn.

BEME.com is dedicated to women's issues such as health, beauty and fashion, while unmissabletv.com is a collaboration of IPC's TV titles.

Over-inflated

Loaded, which is one of the company's most successful products, will continue in magazine form only.

Sly Bailey, chief executive of IPC Media, said: "The media landscape has changed considerably.

"Two years ago, investment and confidence levels were over-inflated.

"Now the reality is very different and media organisations are adopting greater commercial realism in their forward plans."

IPC Media will continue to develop its remaining sites such as NME.com, countrylife.co.uk, decanter.co.uk and web-user.co.uk.

The company has promised to search for jobs for the 90 staff affected by the cuts.