After its negotiations with Meredith Corporation collapsed, Time Warner decided that it will spin off its Time Inc. magazine group into a separate public corporation — as it previously did with Time Warner Cable and AOL. This will leave Time Warner with two giant entities: its television networks (including CNN, TNT, TBS, and more) and its film and TV entertainment divisions (including Warner Brothers).
This is definitely the end of an era — and further indication of the changing landscape for print media.
As the Associated Press reports: “From Sports Illustrated to People to its namesake magazine Time, Time Inc. was always an innovator. But now when the troubled magazine industry is facing its greatest challenge, the company Henry Luce founded is struggling to find its way in a digital world. Time Warner Inc.’s decision to shed its Time Inc. magazine unit underscores the challenges facing an industry that remains wedded to glossy paper even as the use of tablet computers, E-readers, and smartphones explodes. Although the new devices might seem to present an array of opportunity for Time Inc.’s 95 magazine titles, many publishers have found the digital transition troublesome. Digital editions of magazines represented just 2.4 percent of all U.S. circulation in the last half of 2012, or about 7.9 million copies, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.”
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