Time Warner said today it will spin off its entire Time Inc. publishing division into a new publicly traded company after talks collapsed with Meredith.
As part of the announcement, Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang — who has held the job for only 14 months — will leave the company following the split.
“We expect to complete the spin-off before year end and management will share more details of what that means for the company and you as they become available,” Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a memo to Time Inc. staffers.
“Laura has suggested to me that we find another CEO for the new public company and I have agreed,” he said.
Time Warner, which also owns the Warner Bros. film studio and premium channel HBO, has spun out other divisions in the past to boost the stock and appease shareholders, including Time Warner Cable and AOL several years ago.
The Meredith deal, which would have left Time, Sports Illustrated and Fortune with Time Warner, collapsed last week after six months of talks.
Under that plan, most of the Time Inc. titles, including People, InStyle and Real Simple, were going to be spun off into a new publicly traded company controlled by Meredith, whose magazines include Better Homes & Gardens and Ladies’ Home Journal.
Meredith CEO Steve Lacy would have run the combined publishing entity. The deal is said to have broken down over cost and price issues.
While Bewkes didn’t acknowledge the talks in his memo, Meredith confirmed that it had held discussions with Time Warner.
“At Time Warner’s initiation, we discussed combining our National Media Group with certain Time Inc. brands to create a new publicly traded company,” Meredith said in a statement.
“There are natural synergies between our two portfolios; however, we respect Time Warner’s decision and certainly remain open to continuing a dialogue on how our companies might work together on future opportunities.”
kkelly@nypost.com