Time Warner Unveils Time Inc.'s 10-Member Board -- Update

By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg 

Time Warner Inc. unveiled a 10-member board, featuring veteran media executives with strong backgrounds in television, for its soon-to-be stand-alone publishing unit Time Inc., a sign that new Chief Executive Joseph Ripp is hoping to diversify the magazine unit into video, among other businesses.

Among the new board is Dennis FitzSimons, the former chief executive of the publisher-broadcaster Tribune Co.; David Bell, chief executive of marketing services company Slipstream Communications LLC and a former senior adviser to Google Inc.; former Sony Corp. Chief Executive Howard Stringer; former USA Networks chief Kay Koplovitz and John Fahey, the former chief executive of the National Geographic Society.

Time Inc. is one of the country's pre-eminent magazine publishers, led by People, which generated nearly 19% of Time Inc.'s revenue in 2013. Other magazine properties include Time, Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly.

In recent years the company has suffered declining subscription and print ad revenues. In March 2013, Time Warner revealed plans to spin the company off as a separate public company, a restructuring expected to be completed during the second quarter.

Mr. Ripp said the board will provide Time Inc. with know-how in the traditional publishing arena as well as the broader video sector and online, noting that consumers are accessing its content in "vastly different" ways.

"We're one of the most successful content producers in the U.S.," said Mr. Ripp, who is the board's only insider. "Now we have to take it to multiple platforms. The diversity of the board will let us do that."

Ralph Walkling, executive director of the Center for Corporate Governance at Drexel University's business school, noted some board members have "startup and advertising experience, which is a definite positive." Mr. Bell, for example, is the former chief executive of the Interpublic Group of Cos., an ad-holding company.

Michael Kassan, chief executive officer of MediaLink LLC, a media- and ad-consulting firm, said the range of experience would be helpful for Time Inc., which faces declining print ad revenues in the magazine industry.

"These aren't shrinking violet board members," Mr. Kassan said. "You don't want somebody who has always had it easy. You want people who have struggled, who have been in the trenches in emerging spaces."

Mr. Kassan said Time Inc.'s biggest challenge as a stand-alone company will be convincing investors that its businesses can be broader than simply print. The company is already doing that by creating content on digital platforms, he added.

Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at [e-mail]

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