Times Mirror Cable Offices to Leave Irvine : Media: Move to Atlanta as result of deal with Cox Enterprises is expected to lead to some job losses.

IRVINE —  The Irvine headquarters of Times Mirror Cable Television will be relocated to Atlanta as a result of the company’s planned partnership with Cox Enterprises, a move that is expected to lead to the loss of an unspecified number of the 200 total jobs here.

“I would suspect that (the) Irvine (headquarters) would be shrunken somewhat in size by virtue of duplication,” James O. Robbins, president of Cox Cable Communications Inc., Cox’s cable unit, said Monday in a press conference from Atlanta.

Atlanta-based Cox, which has announced a $2.3-billion plan to merge its cable interests with that of Times Mirror to create the nation’s third-largest cable TV company, said much of the work done at Times Mirror’s Orange County cable operation, Dimension Cable--which employs about 950 people, of which 585 are in Orange County--is likely to duplicate that performed by Cox employees in San Diego County.

Larry W. Wangberg, president of Times Mirror Cable, is expected to remain with Times Mirror in a new capacity.

Programming changes may be in the works, too, for a small number of Dimension’s 181,000 Orange County subscribers.

The companies say they are exploring “a collaborative test” of interactive information and entertainment services to nearly 43,000 homes and businesses in an Irvine-based cable network later this year. The network includes parts of Tustin and the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Cox is mum about the details of any test, but it has begun trial programming in other areas. In November, the company became the nation’s first to offer Prodigy computer on-line service by cable when it initiated service to eight homes in El Cajon. The service will be expanded to a greater geographic area within months, said Ellen East, a Cox Cable Communications spokeswoman.