Tag Archives: peter kafka

Will Time Warner sell Time magazine?

Reuters is reporting, originally via BusinessWeek, that Time Warner Inc  will eventually sell the Time Inc magazine unit and could buy holdings in its core entertainment category – according to Gordon Crawford, managing director of its largest shareholder.

“Time Warner just spun off their cable division, they are going to sell their print division, they are going to spin off AOL and they’re just going to be Warner Brothers, HBO and the Turner Networks,” said Crawford, managing director of The Capital Group during a roundtable discussion at the USC Annenberg School for Communications.

Meanwhile, Peter Kafka of All Things Digital suggests that Crawford might not be right:

“[H]ere’s the thing: The body language from Time Warner executives in recent months makes me think they intend to keep at least part of their magazine business in the family. More than body language, actually: ‘Time Warner without People? I can’t imagine it,’ one well-placed Time Warner official told me recently.”

PaidContent: AP Chairman interviewed – “We own the content”

Let’s brave it and link (it’s a press release so it should be ok): AP chairman Dean Singleton’s speech in which he said:

“We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories. We are mad as hell, and we are not going to take it any more.”

And this, in an interview with PaidContent:

“Singleton didn’t pull any punches during our phone interview – repeating in various ways, “We own the content. We can use it as we see fit because it’s ours.”

“But he didn’t provide much detail, either. What he did say: print isn’t going away, advertising can’t carry the weight anymore, and online pay models may be on the way.”

Full PaidContent interview at this link.

Finally, check out AllThingsD: Kara Swisher on the ‘online sizzle’ and Peter Kafka on AP’s ‘shaking fist’.