PEOPLE : Barron Moves to New Unit of Time Warner

Arthur Barron, who retired as president of Paramount Communications Inc.’s entertainment group after spending more than two decades in the movie business, has been appointed chairman of a new Time Warner Inc. venture aimed at developing new entertainment businesses overseas.

Time Warner, one of the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerates, tapped Barron to head up Time Warner Enterprises, which the company described as “a strategic and business development unit.”

Barron, 56, will report to J. Richard Munro, co-chairman of Time Warner Inc., and Steven J. Ross, co-chief executive of the company.

“I’m thrilled,” said Barron, who oversaw Paramount Pictures, Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks and Paramount’s theater operations. “My expertise is in the entertainment area and that’s probably where I will concentrate.”

Time Inc., which completed a $7-billion offer for Warner Communications last July, was itself once targeted for takeover by Barron’s old employer Paramount. Barron would not comment on how he felt about switching allegiances.