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CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Time Warner, the world's largest media company, is expected to post a decline in fourth-quarter profit next week on decreased revenue at AOL and difficult comparisons with a prior-year quarter that included the smash-hit movie "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Reporting results on Wednesday, Time Warner (TWX)is expected to earn 23 cents a share on revenue of $11.1 billion. A year ago, the company earned 25 cents a share on an adjusted basis, on revenue of $11.89 billion. CIBC World Markets analyst Jason Helfstein trimmed his fourth-quarter earnings forecast on Time Warner Friday, cutting the...

Time Inc. abruptly removed Eric Pooley as the managing editor of Fortune magazine yesterday, and named Andrew Serwer, a senior editor at large, to succeed him, becoming the magazine’s third top editor in less than six years. John Huey, editor in chief of Time Inc., a unit of Time Warner, gave no reason for the change, which was effective immediately, and did not return calls seeking comment. Mr. Serwer said in an interview that Mr. Huey had told him over the weekend that he wanted him to take the helm. “I found out about it a couple of days ago,”...

Commentary: A new editor, new publication day, new attitude NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Welcome to the Richard Stengel Era at Time magazine. Stengel was hired in May to be the 16th managing editor in Time's 83-year history at an especially challenging period. It's fair to say Time has never had to deal as stressfully with the dreaded "R" word: relevance. Noting Time's stagnant circulation figure of 4 million, cynics question whether a weekly news magazine is still necessary. Internet news sites and blogs can supply immediacy and context. And crucially, 24-hour cable news channels provide vivid pictures. Could a magazine...

Life for Richard Parsons at Time Warner is Sisyphean. No matter what he does, the stock stays just below $20, where it has been lodged for the four years he has headed the world's largest media company. The $20 billion stock buyback, the sale of flagging Warner Music, the proposed sale of 18 marginal magazines like Popular Science (the 18 make up one-eighth of the company's vaunted periodicals roster), the painful cost cuts and layoffs, the paring of huge debts run up from what's ritually called the "disastrous" 2000 merger with AOL: Nothing works for Time Warner (19, TWX). Even...

WITH the fall comes the harvest. Or at least that’s what Richard D. Parsons and his top dogs at Time Warner have hoped for in autumns past. But regardless of how much the chief executive and his allies regroup, retool and reorganize their sprawling media empire, the stock market just yawns. Every morning when they look at Time Warner’s ticker, it’s Groundhog Day. Carl C. Icahn seems to be the only investor with a modicum of enthusiasm for the stock. Last month, he disclosed plans to form a new fund to scoop up more Time Warner shares so he could...

Steve Case resigns from board to devote more time to his new company, Revolution. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Steve Case, the founder of AOL, Monday said he has resigned from the board of Time Warner Inc. ending a painful chapter in the history of the world's largest media company. Case was one of the original architects of the merger of AOL and Time Warner (Research), which helped erase more than $200 billion in shareholder value from the stock. "On behalf of Time Warner's Board of Directors and senior management team, I thank Steve Case for his years of distinguished service...