Spinoff of Time Inc. magazine group delayed

This Feb. 1, 2010, file photo, shows the Time Warner Center, in New York. The media conglomerate reports earnings Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013. AP

NEW YORK – The planned spinoff of the Time Inc. group of magazines, initially planned for this year, has been delayed until sometime in 2014, conglomerate Time Warner said Wednesday.

Chief executive Jeff Bewkes told a conference call related to Time Warner earnings that the plan was progressing but would not be completed this year, as had been previously announced.

Bewkes said the Time Inc. chief Joe Ripp and his team “have been in place for a couple months now and they are making great progress in preparing Time Inc. to become an independent publicly traded company.”

He added that documents on the spinoff should be filed in “the next few weeks,” and added that “that should put us in a position to complete the spinoff during the second quarter of next year.”

Time Warner announced plans in March for a “complete legal and structural separation of Time Inc. from Time Warner” which would make the publishing unit “an independent, publicly traded company.”

The company publishes 21 US magazines, including its flagship Time magazine, People, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. It has 25 websites and several international magazines including global editions of Time and Fortune and publishing operations in Britain and Mexico.

The publishing industry is grappling with a steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.

Time Warner, which owns Warner Bros., HBO television, CNN and Turner Broadcasting, said profits rose 44 percent from a year ago in the past quarter to $1.18 billion. Revenues were nearly flat at $6.86 billion.