Layoffs today at Time Warner Cable KC

Just confirmed that Time Warner Cable of Kansas City is eliminating about a dozen local front-office positions. It's part of TWCKC efforts to merge operations with its national division, based in Englewood, Colo.

The layoffs, numbering "about a dozen," did not include any departments that work directly with customers, said Damon Porter, spokesman for Time Warner Cable of Kansas City, the area's largest cable provider.

"They will not affect our customer base," Porter said Friday. "We will continue to prove the best possible service we can. The changes that we made were duplicative of those elsewhere in the company and are designed to make us more efficient."

One prominent change will eliminate the position of severe storm meteorologist. During extreme weather, Time Warner's Metro Weather channel has used a local weathercaster to supplement the regular weather programming that comes from WSI Corporation studios in Massachusetts.

The changes come at a time when Time Warner Cable is trying to reconcile two seemingly opposite tasks. On the one hand, it needs to streamline operations and improve profitability to boost investor confidence in the company's sagging stock, which in turn has also hurt its largest share holder, Time Warner Inc.

At the same time, Time Warner Cable is vowing to improve customer service and meet the challenge of satellite competitors, who are aggressively marketing their high-definition TV and NFL football offerings.