NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) would rather keep its sprawling magazine division within the company than spin it off, Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Bewkes said on Tuesday, because it sees opportunities to use its content to bolster other businesses.
Bewkes' comments, made at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York, come amid calls by some investors and analysts for the company to divest its Time Inc. magazine division, known for such titles as Time, People and Sports Illustrated.
"At this point, we think it can benefit more and is benefiting more by being part of this company," Bewkes said.
But he also said he understood Wall Street's interest in "what extent could it be better if it were on its own" because of Time Inc.'s size and reach.
With over 150 magazines worldwide and nearly a quarter of the domestic advertising market for consumer magazines, Time Inc. would be the largest U.S. magazine publisher if it were a stand-alone company.
Investor Carl Icahn had been among those calling for a spin-off, as part of his abandoned call for the corporation to be broken up into four different units.
Bewkes argued it makes more sense to keep the pieces together. "If you have a lead position in all of the relevant and adjacent industries, essentially you have better and earlier intelligence of what's going to happen and you have an ability to make things happen," he said.
That includes the magazine division, he said, since it can increasingly be integrated with other Time Warner businesses as more content can be offered digitally through the Internet or even video-on-demand.
As examples, he said the online edition of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue received 33 million hits on the Internet "in a very short period of time." People magazine's electronic alert on movie star Angelina Jolie's pregnancy received 17 million hits, he said. Continued...
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