From HBO to its film studios, there are many stars in the firmament of Time Warner, but Jeff Bewkes took center stage today.

Bewkes addressed investors for the first time since he became chief executive of Time Warner in January, outlining a restructuring of the AOL unit and saying that the company was considering its options on its stake in Time Warner Cable.

The portion of Bewkes' road map most eagerly pursued by analysts was a plan to separate AOL's internet access business from its so-called audience business, a process which the Time Warner C.E.O. said had already begun and was a top priority.

The move could signal Time Warner plans to sell or spin off AOL's access business, which is losing customers in droves as AOL drops most subscription fees in a bid to drive advertising revenue.

While Bewkes did not outline any specific plans to combine part of AOL with another online partner, such as Google, he noted that the company was "open to strategic moves that make sense."

Bewkes hit on the second hot issue for investors when he announced that the company had already entered direct discussions regarding its 84 percent stake in Time Warner Cable.

"We think it's undervalued but don't know it's best positioned in current ownership positions," Bewkes said. While the presumptive strategy would be to reduce ownership, Time Warner's leadership has indicated that the possibility of increasing their stake has not been ruled out. Bewkes said more detail into actions regarding cable are likely when the company reports first-quarter earnings in April.  

Bewkes also outlined broad cost-cutting initiatives, including reducing corporate spending by 15 percent as well as reviewing the cost structure at Time Warner's New Line studio.

The company earlier reported a 41 percent decline in fourth-quarter earnings. Time Warner earned $1 billion, or 28 cents per share, compared with $1.8 billion, or 44 cents per share, in the fourth quarter a year ago, when Time Warner had gains from the sale of an AOL business in Europe, as well as tax benefits. Revenue rose 2.4 percent, to $12.6 billion. The results matched analysts' forecasts.

Again, it was a story of strength in the film business offsetting weakness at the internet unit: Revenue at AOL fell 32 percent, as it lost 740,000 subscribers.

While the fourth quarter belonged to Richard Parsons, his predecessor, the future is Bewkes'. And holders of Time Warner's long-battered stock looked for signs of how Bewkes will fix things at the world's biggest media company.


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