The company that publishes Entertainment Weekly and People magazine — as well as Time, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated — is said to be preparing to lay off as many as 700 people as it grapples with declining ad sales and subscriptions. The cuts, out of a staff of nearly 8,000, will take place this quarter and come from all corners of the business, my colleague Jill Goldsmith at Variety reports. It shouldn’t be a complete surprise. Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes told an investment gathering last month that the decline in the publishing unit’s revenues “seems to be continuing.” And Time Inc CEO Laura Lang told staffers this week in a memo, disclosed by the New York Post, that the business “remains challenged” which means there’ll be no pay raises for 2013 and that “we must continue to aggressively manage costs.” Time Warner will report year-end results for 2012 on February 6. UBS Investment Research analyst John Janedis expects the publishing unit to report cash flow of $457M for the year, -21.2% vs 2011, on revenues of $3.46B, -4.5%.