Time Warner wants more revenue from TMZ

Time Warner Inc. wants more juice out of TMZ, the celebrity website that is the brainchild of former Los Angeles TV newsman Harvey Levin.

The media giant hopes to wring more advertising revenue out of the property and use some of the money to expand the news operation, according to people close to the site who were not authorized to speak publicly.

That’s the plan once Time Warner takes full control of TMZ today, when the media giant spins off AOL to shareholders.

Since its launch by former KCBS-TV Channel 2 reporter Levin in December 2005, TMZ has been run as a partnership of AOL and the Telepictures unit of Warner Bros., Time Warner’s studio. After the spinoff, TMZ will be solely owned by Time Warner.

AOL will continue to feature TMZ on its home page to drive traffic to the site for the next year. Warner Bros. plans to establish relationships with other portals in an effort to broaden TMZ’s reach.

Often dismissed as a bunch of kids going through celebrity garbage cans, TMZ gained new prominence when it was the first outlet to report that pop star Michael Jackson had died. It also has been out front on the Tiger Woods scandal.

According to regulatory filings, TMZ had revenue in 2008 of $25.4 million.

Warner Bros. believes it can boost ad revenues substantially by better capitalizing on the upscale consumers who tune in to TMZ’s TV show and its site. TMZ also is increasing its presence on mobile phones, which Warner Bros. expects to exploit better now.

Some major advertisers such as Procter & Gamble have resisted advertising on the TV show because of its dependence, particularly during slow news times, on peekaboo photos of starlets’ nudity.

joe.flint@latimes.com