Great Idea

Turner Classic Movies, a Time Warner owned company will turn its spotlight on the depiction of Latinos in past and contemporary Westerns through the month of May. In a statement made by Vice President of programming, Charles Tabesh said “As has been shown in our past RACE AND HOLLYWOOD editions, the way in which Hollywood depicts different cultural groups can have a tremendous impact on how those groups are viewed in society as a whole.” There will also be different themes for each day that films will be shown such as musicals, interracial relations, and will view border towns and small ethnic towns. These films include “The Milagro Beanfield War” (1988), “La Bamba” (1987), “The Mambo Kings” (1992), “Stand and Deliver” (1988), The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” (1983), and “Lone Star” (1996).
The decision to use these themes is very important for Time Warner’s reputation. This reflects positively on their reputation and should gain more interest from publics. This also increases interest from different ethnicities even as a minority. By acknowledging every ethnicity in film, each group can be satisfied in watching these films. It is also a learning experience for them as each group progresses through time in America.

Schmitz, Sarah. "Turner Classic Movies to Look at Latino Images in Film in Latest Edition of Race and Hollywood in May." February 11, 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20090211-906774.html?mod=wsjcrmain.

New Chairman for TW Cable

Time Warner Cable replaced chairman Don Logan, who will remain on the board with Chief Executive Glenn Britt. This move was made because Time Warner Cable is separating from Time Warner later in the current quarter we are in. The company plans to focus more on movies, TV programming and magazines with hopes to make the company more competitive. This is a huge move because Time Warner Cable owns an 85% stake in the main company. With this split, Jeff Bewkes (CEO of Time Warner) will be leaving the board of the cable division. In a statement made by Britt, he said “The board has benefited greatly from Jeff's contributions and from Don's leadership during his tenure as chairman. I thank them both for their service and look forward to working with Don as he continues to serve as a Director.”
With this being a major split from the company, the move is to save Time Warner which actually fell ten cents two days ago. The move is so each division becomes more efficient and is able to focus on separate goals from one another while still benefitting from each other. I believe it was a good move but we shall see the results of the split by the time the final quarter rolls around.

Farrell, Mike. "Time Warner Cable Names Britt Chairman." Feb 18, 2009.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/174457-Time_Warner_Cable_Names_Britt_Chairman.php

Warner and High Expectations?

With the economy in such a horrendous downfall, it is hard to believe any organization could have a positive outlook for 2009. Time Warner however recently released the expectations for the 2009 season revealing an expected profit. This however will come in lieu of plenty of job cuts even from Time Warner’s cable division that was the least prone to the economy but still not immune. Cutting nearly three percent of its total work force is the general goal for the upcoming year. The three percent will serve as a total loss of 1,250 jobs. Chief executive of Time Warner Cable Glenn Britt stated “We’ll market our services aggressively, asserting our competitive advantages” who also said the company is cautiously increasing its marketing spend in the current quarter from the previous period. Although Time Warner Cable overall lost money, they actually posted gain in the fourth quarter that just ended by adding 44,000 new digital video subscribers, 113,000 high-speed internet subscribers and 137,000 phone subscribers according to Forbes.com.
With this report, Time Warner better be careful in releasing these reports. Although it is important to have a high confidence level, I believe it is important to let the readers and stakeholders know that these figures are at an “at best” level. In doing this, Time Warner will not let their supporters down if anything were to happen to downgrade these figures.
Adegoke, Yinka. “Time Warner Cable to cut 1,250 Jobs, Sees 2009 Profit.” February 4, 2009. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/reuters/2009/02/04/2009-02-04T223621Z_01_N03548659_RTRIDST_0_TIMEWARNERCABLE-UPDATE-3.html.

Quite a Loss

After laying off approximately 10% of AOL employees at Time Warner, they announced a loss of $16 billion. Unfortunately, Time Warner’s divisions of filmed entertainment, AOL, and publishing revenues dropped three percent from a year ago. These were partially offset however from a slight gain in its cable and networks businesses. CEO Jeff Bewkes made a proper statement of the company by saying, “we'll strengthen our balance sheet, improve our strategic flexibility and return capital to our stockholders on a consistent basis. Through these steps, we expect to emerge from this downturn in an even stronger competitive position." Reasoning for improvement within the cable division was mainly because of CNN political spending and Major League Baseball on TBS which is of course owned by Time Warner. Overall, sports is helping Time Warner because the NBA which is also played on TBS. The main loss can be blamed for the AOL division which was dropped by 20%. Because of 2008 writeoffs mainly dealing with AOL, the hole that they have dug themselves in can be to blame. It is however good to see a positive outlook from the CEO in a time like this and to understand the downgrade but to look at it in a positive sense.

Holmes, Robert. "Time Warner Posts $16 billion Loss." February 4, 2009.