There's not much surprise left, given the drumbeat of rumors that AOL would be pursuing mass layoffs later this year. But we now hear that layoffs have started at the Internet giant, even earlier than expected, with a number of middle managers getting the chop Tuesday afternoon. Anyone have more details on who's out, and which parts of the company are getting hit the hardest? Send in a tip. Update: At Silicon Alley Insider, Henry Blodget says the date for mass layoffs has been set for October 16. Another source says Tuesday's layoffs were mostly in AOL's international business, leaving few people outside the UK. And yet another tipster suggests that it was all an elaborate joke gone wrong.

"Richard Zannino, the chief executive of Dow Jones, prepared the way yesterday for job cuts at the company after its $5.2bn acquisition by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. In a letter to employees of Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Mr Zannino said the main goal of News Corp's $5bn acquisition was to 'increase profits by strengthening and growing our products and brands, not by slashing costs'. Mr Zannino added that 'there will be some changes', and 'where job cuts are unavoidable, we will communicate that as soon as practical'." [FT]

Time Warner's troubled Internet unit, having resorted to me-too strategies in search, copying Google, and in portals, copying Yahoo, is now copying itself, going back to its old ways of mass layoffs. At Silicon Alley Insider, Henry Blodget crunches the numbers on various layoff scenarios. And here's the thing: It's not like AOL is losing money. Far from it. It's simply not as obscenely profitable, as, say, Google, which is adding employees as fast as AOL seems to be shedding them. A layoff of a quarter of its staff would lift AOL's profit margins from 39 percent to 52 percent, Blodget estimates. Given the constant dwindling of its Internet-access business, and the uncertain growth of its online advertising sales, cutbacks, while regrettable, seem logical. Let's just not pretend Time Warner's doing this to keep AOL alive; they're doing this to keep AOL gushing cash.

Among the casualties of the Stuff shuttering: publisher John Lumpkin. [AdAge]

U.S. News & World Report is shedding photographers. Makes sense: You can run the same old pictures of the country's best colleges year after year, right? [NYP]

• Supreme Judicial Court in Mass. upholds $2 mil guilty verdict against Boston Herald and its reporter David Wedge in lawsuit brought by judge. [NYT]
  

• Did we mention there's a Times shareholder meeting today? Enjoy these prepared remarks from Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Janet Robinson. [LAT]
  

Good news, Chicago Tribune employees! The 100 or so of you who will get laid off will get a minimum of three months of health insurance! That is so awesome. Also a minimum of four weeks pay, which isn't the worst. Anyway, okay, bye, get out! At least they only tangentially used the ridiculous post-language corporate phrase "Employee Voluntary Separation Program" that they used out at the LA Times for their lay-offs. Because that would have made the Trib people sound like totally cool people. Or assholes, either way!

Viacom—which yesterday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $480.8 million—doesn't want its employees on the other side of the Atlantic to feel like they've been left out of all the recent firing fun. To that end, reports the Guardian, the company "plans to axe around 250 jobs from its MTV Networks International business, which operates channels including MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1 in the UK. This represents around 8% of MTVNI's total workforce of 3,257." Tough break, kids. At least you go out knowing your freed-up salaries will help finance that Joost deal!

Last week, we spread the rumor that MTV would be firing around 500 people this week. This morning, chairman and CEO Judy McGrath sent around an email—at 6:17 a.m., no less—announcing that in order to "explore new business models" because their "industry is at an inflection point" (??), only 250 people will be let go. The full email is after the jump; please read it and let us know if you're any clearer on what an 'inflection point' is afterwards.

We're hearing that "as many as" 500 people may be let go at MTV Networks "as early as next week." And another tipster reports that "Viacom is so pissed off at MTV Networks for missing their targets and being late on their true financial estimates for the end of 2006 that they are docking every staffer's quoted bonus by at least 15 percent .... Coming from a company that has plumped up their bonus payout for the past many years, docking their resources to an 85 percent payout will hurt like crazy and prompt many of them (both junior and senior) to pack their bags." Perhaps involuntarily, it would seem. Looks like Gideon Yago got out just in time.

Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore to BusinessWeek's Jon Fine:

Somehow we feel like this is our fault: Batten Barton Durstine Osborn got a little more lean yesterday.

This month's massive cull at Time Inc. doesn't mean all the departures are done. "Volunteers" are still deciding to take the package and hit the road. Who's leaving? Time's Assistant Managing Editor, Lisa Beyer, for one:

Let's say you're a major publisher who, through no fault of your own, has recently had to slash three hundred staffers from your payroll, with more to come? Sure, you've probably helped the balance sheet, but who's left to do the actual work? Ah, right, the interns. A week before the big housecleaning at Time, Inc., a series of ads went up on the Columbia School of Journalism's Career Services website. We've reprinted them after the jump. If you're young and industrious, this might be your big chance to get in on the ground floor. Just try not to slip; there's blood all over it.

If you can stand another memo on the Time Inc. layoffs, we've got one. This one comes from the Newspaper Guild, and it gives a pretty good look at what Time Inc. wants its "volunteers" to walk away from. Those numbers after the jump.

Here's a nice little number that went out to People's stringers from News Editor Rob Howe in the wake of this morning's bloodbath. The good news: They're needed more than ever. Full, reassuring details after the jump.

But who's he diddling? Oh, right, the employees.

What about Time itself? Over the transom:

Details are starting to trickle in concerning the carnage at Time, Inc. Here are a couple, there will be plenty more to come.