Time Inc. is not for sale, now or later, says its CEO

Despite the flurry of bloggy speculation, Time Warner is not going to sell its magazines, according to its CEO, Jeff Bewkes. During an Atlantic Monthly conference in Washington, according to a post on Daily Finance by Jeff Bercovci, Bewkes was asked a direct question and gave a similarly direct answer.

"Time Inc. is not for sale," Bewkes told his interviewer, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. "People made these rumors because they want a lot of activity."

Goldberg, apparently knowing that saying this doesn't mean it won't be for sale later, asked if Time Warner would be in the magazine business in five years:

"Yeah, and I think the magazine business has plenty of expansion in it," Bewkes replied. "It is true that the magazine business, right now, during this recession, is having a bit of an advertising recession, but the thing to remember about magazines in general and certainly our magazines is the readership is solid, the readership is holding up, the readers are happy, the titles are thriving."

Commentary and speculation about what such a sell-off might look like was sparked when a major investor, Gordon Crawford, managing director of the capital group, was quoted predicting that Time Inc. would be sold off in order that Time Warner could concentrate in entertainment and broadcasting. Other commenters said it could come within six to nine months. (The word on the street is that the whole stable of 100+ magazines, if sold as a package, could cost the buyers upwards of $10 billion.)