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Loaded site is titsup.com

IPC shuts 3 online mags, sheds 90 staff

Publisher IPC is canning three Internet sites and shedding 90 staff. The sites to die are BEME.com; unmissabletv.com; and uploaded.com.

It claims the move is nothing to do with the company's sale to AOL Time Warner.

Unmissabletv was obviously missable, and the unique idea of putting scantily-clad women on the Net via uploaded.com wasn't quite unique enough.

Paraphrasing IPC chief exec Sly Bailey, the company is no longer going to chuck its money away. "The media landscape has changed considerably. Two years ago, investment and confidence levels in the Internet were over-inflated. Now, the reality is very different and media organisations are adopting greater commercial realism in their forward plans," he said.

As the three named sites have "not met the original projections", IPC is concentrating on NME.com; countrylife.co.uk; horseandhound.co.uk; decanter.com; web-user.co.uk; and ybw.com

BEME.com, unmissabletv.com, and uploaded.com will close on 31 August.

Three IPC Electric departments will also close: Electric Technology; Electric Finance; and Digital Ad sales. ®

Here's a taster from the IPC review statement given to staff:

Was it a condition of the sale of IPC to Time Inc. to close part of IPC's online business?
No.

Was the review in any way connected with AOL Time Warner's own recent announcement that it is shedding up to 1,200 jobs within its Internet division?
No. But both IPC's and AOL Time Warner's decisions reflect the challenging conditions facing all Internet businesses.

Why the sudden urgency?
The review was conducted over an appropriate time to cover all relevant issues. The quick implementation of its recommendations will help to put the business on a stronger commercial footing and stem the large losses currently being incurred.

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