The business stories that matter, by Fortune's Colin Barr
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February 6, 2008, 11:51 am

Time for change at Time Warner

Time Warner (TWX) shares rose 4% after CEO Jeff Bewkes said the media company and publisher of Fortune wants to cut costs. Bewkes pledged to cut corporate-level spending by 15% in a move that will save $50 million, and he suggested more expenses will come under the knife later. “We’ve already saved about $1.5 billion in expenses over the past two years,” he said in an e-mail to employees. “But cost management has to be a continual process and mindset at every level of our company.”

Bewkes also said Time Warner will consider reducing its 84% stake in Time Warner Cable (TWC), and that it plans to separate AOL’s growing advertising business from its online access operation - which has been de-emphasized following a sharp, multiyear decline in subscribers. Bewkes said the separation should “give AOL greater strategic flexibility in the future” - a nod to the notion that AOL could be of greater value to other players in the Internet ad market in the light of Microsoft’s (MSFT) bid for Yahoo (YHOO).

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Colin Barr covers business and finance for Fortune.com. Previously he was an editor at TheStreet.com and author of the weekly Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street column, and an editor at Dow Jones Newswires.
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