American Media Inc. is closing the West Coast office of Us Weekly on the Miracle Mile after its acquisition of the celebrity news publication in March, a spokesman said last week.

The company also is laying off less than 30 percent of Us Weekly’s total staff, company spokesman Jon Hammond said in an email. That’s about 34 people, while he said 80 other staffers are expected to stay on at the New York-based magazine. Employees who were let go will have the opportunity to apply for other jobs at American Media.

“AMI already has a very well-established L.A. presence and decreasing the redundancies between the two (will) allow resources to be focused in other areas of the US Weekly brand,” Hammond said.

American Media,

which also publishes

the National Enquirer and OK tabloids, has an office on Miracle Mile not far from the Us Weekly office it’s closing.

It purchased the magazine from Wenner Media Inc. on March 15. The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, put the purchase price at $100 million.

Wenner, also New

York based, owns Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal magazines.

Us Weekly has an audience of more than 50 million across all of its platforms, American Media said. The magazine had almost 2 million paid subscriptions as of June 30, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

Chicago-based tronc, owner of the Los Angeles Times, had been negotiating to buy the weekly.

– Caroline Anderson