Ted Turner’s Broader Role Defined

CNN founder Ted Turner will have plenty of “strategic” thinking to do for the combined America Online Inc. and Time Warner Inc., though he won’t have any daily management responsibilities, AOL Chairman Steve Case said Thursday.

Case, who will become chairman of the merged companies, said he and Turner would be “freed up” after the merger to contemplate AOL Time Warner’s broader course. Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin will be chief executive and run the company’s day-to-day business, while Turner will be vice chairman.

“Ted is going to have a much bigger canvas,” Case said, speaking at a lunch celebrating the 20th anniversary of Cable News Network’s air date. “He’s going to be involved in every aspect of this whole company.”

Case’s remarks appeared to be a response to an article published in The Times last week reporting that Turner was unhappy with the $119-billion merger, announced in January.

“Ted Turner has been a hero of mine for 25 years, and he and I basically are going to be joined at the hip,” Case said.

The two will plan the company’s future and ensure that it follows a set of core values as it attempts to spread Internet access and its own products around the world, Case said.

Turner and CNN officials have downplayed the report this week, suggesting that Turner supports the merger even if he will not be involved intensely in the new company’s daily management.

Turner, who sat beside Case at the luncheon, did not address the group.

“Did Ted want an operating role with the new company? Yes. Was he unhappy that he didn’t get one? Yes,” Terence McGuirk, chairman of Turner Broadcasting System, told the newspaper. “Is he on board with the new structure and embracing the merger? Yes.”

Turner bought an Atlanta television station in 1970 and turned it into a “superstation” in 1976, sending the signal to cable systems around the country and marking the beginning of Turner Broadcasting System. He started CNN four years later.

In 1996, he sold his operations to Time Warner in a $7.6-billion deal that left him as Time Warner’s biggest shareholder and vice chairman.

Case conceded that some people have been surprised by the swiftness with which the corporate reorganization has progressed. “We said we’re going to run this organization on Internet time,” he said.

AOL, with more than 22 million subscribers, is the nation’s largest Internet provider. Time Warner is the biggest media conglomerate, with Time magazine, Warner Bros. studios, HBO and CNN.

The news network has gathered international journalists, dignitaries and world leaders at its Atlanta headquarters this week for its annual “World Report” conference.

Also Thursday, Vice President Al Gore, former President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressed sessions.