The move is part of an ongoing restructuring of BCA by its parent company, Bertelsmann, as traditionally book clubs come under pressure from online vendors such as Amazon.
Twenty marketing staff have been axed, with the rest of the cuts coming from all levels across the company's London offices. All employees were offered voluntary redundancy, with about half accepting. Some new positions were advertised and filled internally.
Leisa Nugent, senior marketing manager and Mei Lan Wright, group club marketing manager, have left, while Phil Haslam, former joint head of marketing, will become sole head of marketing. Torsten Schuppe, who was joint head of marketing, alongside Haslam, has been offered a position within Bertelsmann.
Head of database, Jim Jeffries, head of customer acquisition, Tracey Markham, and head of club sales, Mike Shrimpton, will remain in their current positions.
Haslam says the redundancies were a "side effect" of a consolidation of the clubs, which saw the three group portfolios - general, fiction and specialist non-fiction- reduced to just one.
"The business was over-complicated and had many brands and products that overlapped. We wanted to consolidate and simplify wherever possible," said Haslam. "We had three history clubs; a female club and a female fiction club. Now we're bringing them together into one magazine.
"Members will still be offered the same books and range, but in bigger magazines. From a customer's perspective, they'll still be a part of that same club and they'll still receive the same products they've always received," said Haslam.
The job losses came after Marketing Direct's 2005 Top 100 Mailers survey revealed that BCA cut its direct mail budget from ú28.2m to ú13.8m in 2004.
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