Hachette Filipacchi, the publisher that recently lost out to beauty giant Avon in talks to take over several open floors at the William Kaufman Organization’s 777 Third Avenue, is reportedly closing in on a deal at the 48-story Time-Life Building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas in Rockefeller Center. The contract would be for 132,000 square feet of space previously occupied by Lehman Brothers, which had subleased the three floors from Time Inc. Hachette would be downsizing significantly from its current 263,010 square feet at 1633 Broadway, which is owned by Paramount. Deloitte is also expected to vacate 1633 Broadway soon, in a move that could leave the door open for television network A&E. Currently located at 235 East 45th Street, A&E is in the market for 350,000 square feet of space and is rumored to have looked at the Empire State Building and Worldwide Plaza in addition to Paramount’s building. [Post]

With commercial rents low, New York City publishers struggling to stay afloat amid paltry ad sales are looking to cut real estate costs by moving, downsizing and subleasing. TV Guide’s current office space on East 42nd Street is now bigger than it needs after several rounds of layoffs, and sources told the Post that the magazine is looking for new space; some say it could leave the city altogether. Fortune magazine, which is owned by Time Inc., has combined its space with Money in the Time-Life Building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas. Time Inc. has laid off some 280 New York employees and rumors are circulating that the company could be looking to sublease some of the newly vacated floors in the Rockefeller Center building. Meanwhile, Reader’s Digest is moving in April from its longtime Westchester headquarters to 750 Third Avenue, a former satellite office of Condé Nast for which the company is paying roughly $30 per square foot. [Post, 2nd item]