Time Warner spinning off Time Inc. magazines

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

NEW YORK - Time Warner Inc. says that it will split off its Time Inc. magazine unit into a separate, publicly traded company by the end of the year.

CEO Jeff Bewkes said Wednesday the decision to split off the magazine company behind publications such as Time, Sports Illustrated and People will give the parent company "strategic clarity" and enable it to focus on its TV networks, movies and TV production businesses.

He said the move would create value for shareholders, similar to the prior spin-offs of Time Warner Cable and AOL.

Meredith Corp., which had been talking with Time Warner about combining their magazines into one company, said it respected Time Warner's decision.