Time Warner | featured news

Time Warner said Wednesday that it'll spin off its magazine division, Time Inc., as an independent, publicly traded company later this year, ending the company's talks to sell several magazine titles to Meredith Corp.

Netflix signed deals with two Time Warner units to license a range of cartoons and other programming for its online video-streaming service.

Incoming CNN President Jeff Zucker said Thursday that he intends to make the network more "vibrant and exciting" while broadening the programming on television's original but struggling cable news outlet. The former NBC Universal chief's long-rumored selection as CNN president was announced Thursday. He'll start in January and report to Phil Kent, who runs all the Turner networks for parent company Time Warner.

Amidst record low ratings, Time Warner-owned CNN reportedly has major changes coming its way. Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes recently told reporters that he was "not happy with CNN's ratings performance and...focused on fixing it."

Georg Szalai With other industry moguls in the audience, he also tells an annual UBS investor conference that advertising trends in the first quarter of 2012 feel stronger than in the current fourth quarter. read more

Time Warner Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes today announced the appointment of Laura Lang as Chief Executive Officer of Time Inc. Ms. Lang will join the company from Digitas Inc. where she served as Chief Executive Officer since 2008. She will become CEO of the largest U.S. publishing company, home to such iconic brands as PEOPLE, TIME, INSTYLE, and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, in January 2012.

AOL had a record decline in New York trading after reducing its annual earnings forecast, raising concerns that the company may not be able to turn itself around following the 2009 spinoff from Time Warner. AOL fell $3.88, or 26 percent, to close at $11.19 in New York Stock Exchange trading, the biggest drop and the lowest level since the spinoff. Earlier, the slump prompted a so-called circuit breaker that temporarily halted trading.

Time Warner posted strong fourth quarter earnings on Wednesday as the company capitalized on the continued success of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, growth in networks stemming from advertising and subscription growth in HBO and TVS, and improved productivity in its publishing unit, Time Inc. The company thus decided to revamp its share buyback program and hike its quarterly dividend, to the joy of investors who propped the stock up more than 7% in early trading.

Bewkes has been using every public opportunity he gets to blast Netflix and its business model.

Round two of due diligence has begun in the process to find a buyer for MGM, with a couple Hollywood studios figuring among the half-dozen advancing bidders.