Parsons: Time Warner to hold on to AOL

The publishing giant won't sell or spin off AOL, but more online ads are in its future.

Time Warner Inc. wants AOL LLC to complete successfully its transition to an ad-supported business, and isn't mulling "structural" changes to it, such as selling it or spinning it off, Time Warner Chairman and CEO Richard Parsons said Tuesday.

"We're doing better than I had hoped [with AOL] but we still have a long way to go. We have to make sure we stay tightly focused there," Parsons said at a Goldman Sachs conference, responding to questions from a financial analyst.

Time Warner's priority for AOL is to make sure the Internet subsidiary executes properly its transformation from a business based on subscriber fees for dial-up Internet access, and takes full advantage of the opportunity in the vibrant online ad market, he said.

Two key issues are to increase AOL's own ad inventory that it sells directly to clients, as well as fortifying the ad platform that allows it to act as a broker and distributor between advertisers and third-party Web sites.

"Those are the big executional challenges, given where we're coming from with AOL and the speed at which the industry is moving and the competition," said Parsons, whose appearance was webcast. "That's where the focus is, not on doing something structural with AOL."

Parsons said that the dynamics of the online ad market are shifting towards this latter business of ad brokerage and distribution, whose margins are smaller compared with the direct-sales inventory.

The reason for this change is that advertisers increasingly see value in the broader reach that ad networks provide, as opposed to buying ad space in a specific site, like a portal, he said.

"It's kind of exciting in one sense [and] it's a little daunting in another sense because it's all moving so fast, but we think we're in the middle of it and we think we've got the right tools, management and technologies to play aggressively," he said.

After recently acquiring Advertising.com and several other companies that specialize in behavioral targeting, video ads and mobile ads, AOL has a leading position in this segment of the market, he said.

"I think we have the lead in that space right now, so it's ours to lose," he said.

In fact, AOL can and should be a growth driver for Time Warner, as long as it can increase its revenue at or above the growth clip forecast for the online ad market, Parsons said.

That didn't happen in the second quarter, when AOL's online ad revenue grew 16 percent, leading some financial analysts to question AOL's ability to capitalize on the online ad opportunity.