• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 14, 2009

The top executive at Time Inc. did her best to buck up the struggling magazine industry Tuesday, declaring that the business will prosper for decades to come and essentially urging worried executives to stop and smell the roses.

"I'm absolutely sure that the Time Inc. brands I'm working on will be strong long after we're gone," said CEO Ann S. Moore at an industry event.

Even with increasingly frenetic lifestyles and bombardment of media options, she said, "There's still a real human need to tune out our busy lives and read."

Moore oversees 115 magazines. Last year, Time Inc. saw revenues fall 7% to $4.6 billion and post an operating loss. Ad dollars dropped 10%, although the unit saw improvement in its digital operations that include People.com and SI.com.

Moore acknowledged that the current downturn is "more challenging than previous recessions," but offered reasons for optimism, including the potential for increased success online. She said one of six Americans visits a Time Inc. Web site, and the newly launched Life.com has seen a rush in traffic.

Further, she said "the best ROI in advertising is still the old media mix." And bloggers who succeed with info chunks and links, she suggested, will not be a death knell for what has been a Time Inc. hallmark for decades. "The need for trusted editing skills is not going to go away," she said.

She urged executives to use the recession to carpe diem -- "as an opportunity to right size" and evaluate whether product mix and pricing strategies are where they should be. And she said now is a time to "question openly and honestly your efficiency."

Moore also deviated from business blocking and tackling to encourage executives and others to improve productivity by effectively taking a step back and a deep breath. She urged them to get proper sleep and exercise, keep desks clean, listen more, but talk to people rather than rely on email, empower assistants, and manage time better during the day to reclaim family time at night.

And she defiantly called for mass reduction in BlackBerry usage. She said she asked five People magazine editors to examine the obsession with the devices. Among the findings: executives are getting 20,000 emails a year, a figure growing at a 15% annual clip. And through a series of calculations, they reached a conclusion that easing up on the BlackBerrys might free up a full 15 days a year for other pursuits.

Back on the industry outlook, she said consumers' current fear of spending is "unsustainable," notably when it comes to buying vehicles. A drop in auto advertising has hurt all sectors of the media business.

"This panic will subside," she said. "Americans will buy new cars again."

She did say she expects -- and is fearful of -- unemployment continuing to rise. But historically, the stock market has recovered before unemployment peaks, and a redux could lead to more job creation.

But what's needed is what former Time Warner head Dick Parsons recently advised President Obama to do: serve as sort of a Confidence Builder in Chief.

The magazine business needs "to start preaching optimism in our businesses and brands," she said.

In other Time Inc. news, Sports Illustrated has a redesign on deck. And in the vein of refocusing on the human side, she said a Time Inc. University has just launched, where the company's top 300 executives are offering courses to other employees in their areas of expertise, whether it be editors on story development or finance whizzes on how to break down a circulation spreadsheet.

Internal demand for the classes is high now, but they could be opened to clients in the future.