Jeff Bewkes Steps in as Time Warner Chairman

At last, Jeff Bewkes is the man.

Time Warner just named Bewkes chairman, confirming that the current occupant of that post, Dick Parsons, will step down on Dec. 31. Bewkes became CEO of the media conglomerate in January; an out clause in his contract would have allowed him to walk away had he not been made chairman by the start of 2009.

Bewkes also spoke yesterday at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, where, in a keynote interview, he made a distinction between what's going on in the newspaper industry and what's happening to magazines, including Time Warner's 24 U.S. titles. "I don't think the magazine business is in as much of a -- it's not in a secular decline, necessarily," he said. "It's in a cyclical pressure due to this recession."

It was unclear, however, whether what he meant by that was that the print magazines that survive the recession will generate revenues on par with what they were making before, or that magazine brands will resume their revenue levels, with digital growth offsetting the inevitable decline of print advertising and circulation. I tried to follow up on this point after the Q&A concluded, but Bewkes's handlers bundled him off before I had a chance to ask.

The context of his remarks, however, made it sound as if the latter scenario is the one he had in mind: Bewkes noted that "our digital ad sales of many of these magazines is up," and later said, "We think there are a number of our titles as we move to digital that can be effective growers."

Bewkes also talked about what Time Warner plans to do with the $9 billion-plus windfall it will reap as part of the spinoff of Time Warner Cable early next year. He promised to avoid any "value-destroying" acquisitions like the one that created AOL Time Warner in 2000.