Time Warner’s Married Name: WarnerMedia
• AT&T’s plans for its newly acquired Time Warner division took a giant step forward on Friday — according to Variety and about a bazillion other sources, Time Warner has now been rebranded as WarnerMedia. At the same time it was announced that John Martin, CEO of the Turner cable TV unit since January of 2014, is leaving.
In a memo to employees, John Stankey (pictured, below), the AT&T executive-turned-CEO of WarnerMedia, says the company intends for the daily operations of HBO, Turner and Warner Brothers to “see little change.” And yet, Stankey continued, “because we are now a subsidiary of AT&T Inc., many of the redundant corporate support functions between our companies at the HQ/holding company level will be eliminated in the coming months. That said, we will continue to maintain a small operating staff in support of the media company.”
In the wake of Martin’s departure, Turner’s senior executive team — Turner President David Levy; Turner International President Gerhard Zeiler and CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker will now report directly to Stankey. Richard Plepler and Kevin Tsujihara will remain as heads of HBO and Warner Brothers, respectively.
Joining John Martin in the departure lounge: Jeff Bewkes, former Time Warner CEO, who is expected to leave after a transition period. Others headed for the exits include CFO Howard Averill; Gary Ginsberg, EVP Corporate Marketing & Communications; Karen Magee, Chief Human Resources Officer; Carol Melton, EVP Global Public Policy; and Olaf Olafsson, EVP International and Corporate Strategy.
So why “WarnerMedia?” you ask? “The short answer is that it tested very well externally as a naming convention that holds the valuable HBO, Turner and Warner Bros. brands,” Stankey wrote. “In addition, we felt that maintaining an element of the proud, established and successful Time Warner is a testament and sign of respect for both its history and for you, as architects of that legacy.” Stankey also pointed out that the old name created confusion because many people “never learned to distinguish between Time Warner, the media company, and Time Warner, the former cable company.”
