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New York, NY – Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) today announced that Time Warner has sold the 1.1 million square feet of office space it owns in Time Warner Center for $1.3 billion to a venture of Related Companies, an entity owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and GIC. The venture will lease office space back to Time Warner until early 2019. Additionally, Time Warner, Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group announced that Time Warner intends to relocate the Company’s corporate headquarters and its New York City-based employees to Hudson Yards on the west side of Manhattan, and has accordingly made an initial financial commitment.

Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said, “The sale of our office space in Time Warner Center to Related Companies and its partners is an important step toward moving our New York City-based employees into a dynamic new complex that will foster even more collaboration, creativity, and efficiency across our businesses. We began a process two years ago to evaluate our commercial real estate footprint within the New York Metropolitan area, where we currently own and lease space in seven buildings. By consolidating our space to Hudson Yards, New York’s next great neighborhood, we will be able to reallocate substantial savings to our primary business of creating and sharing great storytelling in television, film, and journalism with audiences around the world.”

Eastdil Secured represented Time Warner on the sale of its office space at Time Warner Center. Studley is representing Time Warner and CBRE is representing Related and Oxford with respect to Time Warner’s planned acquisition of space in Hudson Yards for its new corporate headquarters.

Time Warner Center
Related Companies led the development of Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle and when the 2.8 million square foot Time Warner Center opened in 2004, it became the first vertical, mixed-use facility of its kind in New York City. The Shops at Columbus Circle and The Restaurant and Bar Collection consist of shopping, dining and entertainment programming totaling 350,000 square feet of leasable space. Together with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s three performance halls, this world-class destination provides New York’s West Side with 500,000 square feet of dynamic restaurant, retail and entertainment uses. The complex includes Time Warner Inc.’s headquarters, One Central Park condominiums, The Residences at the Mandarin Oriental, and the Mandarin Oriental five-star luxury hotel. Recognized as the catalyst to transform a long suffering Columbus Circle into a thriving epicenter of Manhattan, Time Warner Center stands as the nucleus of this historic neighborhood.

Related Companies Chairman Stephen M. Ross said, “We are pleased to be partnering with ADIA and GIC in the acquisition of the office space Time Warner has occupied since 2004. Since opening, Time Warner Center has become one of the most celebrated and successful mixed-use developments–offering dynamic retail, hotel and cultural amenities and first-class office space. Time Warner has been a great steward for what will inevitably be some of the most sought after commercial office space in the City.”

Regional Head of Americas at GIC Real Estate Tia Miyamoto said, “Time Warner Center is one of the premier mixed-use projects in the country. We see significant upside in leasing the high quality office space following Time Warner Inc.’s planned relocation to 30 Hudson Yards. We believe strong demand for this first-rate office property will translate into a stable income stream which suits GIC as a long-term investor.”

With Time Warner’s planned move to Hudson Yards, Related will offer space in one of the top office buildings in New York City to outside tenants for the first time. The state-of-the-art space features two dedicated office lobbies, ceiling heights ranging from over 13 feet to 27 feet, flexible and efficient floor plans, unique terraces and panoramic views of Central Park.

30 Hudson Yards
Time Warner expects to acquire more than one million square feet of the available commercial space in 30 Hudson Yards located at the southwest corner of 10th Avenue and 33rd Street in Hudson Yards. Approximately 5,000 employees from Time Warner’s corporate operations and its HBO, Turner Broadcasting, and Warner Bros. businesses will occupy the new office space in 30 Hudson Yards at the end of 2018. The parties have signed an initial agreement for the development of 30 Hudson Yards, and all parties expect to complete final building development documents by the first half of 2014.

Ross added, “Time Warner has always been a visionary media company and Time Warner, led by Jeff Bewkes, is again showcasing its innovative and pioneering spirit in anchoring 30 Hudson Yards. Hudson Yards will be home to some of the most iconic brands in business and we are thrilled at the prospect of once again working with Time Warner to not only build a best-in-class headquarters site but also a community.”

Oxford Chief Executive Officer Blake Hutcheson said, “Time Warner has shown incredible vision not only in its core business of storytelling, but also in its commitment to establishing a collaborative and creative space,” said Hutcheson. “We are very excited to partner with Time Warner alongside Related, and to deliver a business community in which Time Warner will simply thrive.”

The LEED Gold 80-story 30 Hudson Yards, designed by acclaimed global architects Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), will stand 1,227 feet tall and offer state-of-the-art commercial office space for Time Warner’s 5,000 employees, including screening rooms, studio space and dedicated corporate amenity spaces. The 2.6 million square foot building will feature panoramic views of the city skyline and Hudson River, what will be the city’s highest outdoor observation deck and a dramatic ground floor lobby with entrances off of Tenth Avenue and Hudson Boulevard, directly adjacent to the entrance to the new No. 7 subway extension. Upon completion, 30 Hudson Yards will be the fourth tallest building in New York City. Construction of the 10-acre platform that will serve as the foundation of 30 Hudson Yards, the remaining towers in the eastern rail yard and the public space is expected to commence in upcoming weeks. The neighboring 10 Hudson Yards will be home to Coach Inc., L’Oreal USA, SAP and Fairway Market.

Hudson Yards
Hudson Yards is largest private real estate development in U.S. history and the largest development in New York City since Rockefeller Center. It is anticipated that more than 24 million people will visit Hudson Yards every year. The site will include 17 million square feet of commercial and residential space, more than 100 shops and restaurants, approximately 5,000 residences, a unique cultural space, 14-acres of public open space, a new 750-seat public school and a 150-room luxury hotel – all offering unparalleled amenities for residents, employees and guests. The development of Hudson Yards will create more than 23,000 construction jobs, and when completed in 2024, more than 65,000 people a day will either work, visit or live in Hudson Yards. Hudson Yards is also one of the most accessible sites in the region with connections to commuter rail, the subway system, the West Side Highway, the Lincoln Tunnel and ferries along the Hudson River. Grand Central Terminal will be only 6 minutes away by subway, and Penn Station, the nation’s busiest train station, is a short walk away.

This Press Release is courtesy of www.timewarner.com

BURBANK, CA – In a record-breaking year, Warner Bros. Pictures emerged as the top-grossing studio for 2013, ranking number one in domestic, international and worldwide market shares. The announcement was made today by Dan Fellman, President of Domestic Distribution; Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, President of International Distribution; and Sue Kroll, President of Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.

The Studio took in an estimated combined global box office gross of $5.035 billion, setting a new Warner Bros. benchmark and becoming only the second studio ever to cross the $5 billion threshold. It also marked the fifth consecutive year Warner Bros. has surpassed $4 billion worldwide, which is an industry record. Globally, the Studio has now ranked #1 or #2 in nine of the past ten years, also an industry record.

Warner Bros. Pictures has crossed the $1 billion mark, both domestically and internationally, 13 years in a row, another industry record. The Studio took in an estimated $1.895 billion at the domestic box office, with eight films crossing $100 million, including three that went on to gross more than $200 million. At the international box office, Warner Bros. set a new Studio record of $3.14 billion, marking the fourth consecutive year—and the sixth year overall—that it has earned more than $2 billion. Ten Warner Bros. releases earned more than $100 million internationally, of which seven grossed more than $200 million—both unprecedented achievements for the Studio. In addition, two of those films took in more than $300 million, and two more crossed the $400 million mark.

Fellman stated, “We are extremely proud of all the remarkable benchmarks reached in 2013. These terrific numbers speak to the diversity of our slate, which has enabled us to deliver great entertainment to a broad range of audiences throughout the year.”

“This incredible achievement is a testament to not only the consistent quality of filmmaking at our studio, but also the creativity and hard work of our teams here and around the world,” Kwan Vandenberg said. “They continue to reach for greater possibilities in a growing and changing international marketplace.”

Kroll added, “We share these remarkable results with our partners at New Line, Village Roadshow, Legendary and MGM. We also thank and congratulate the extraordinary talents behind our films, whose commitment has been an important part of our efforts on each release.”

Two current hits, still in theatres, are among the Studio’s highest-grossing films for the year: “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” in partnership with New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), at $659 million worldwide and counting; and “Gravity,” at $663 million to date. The Summer blockbuster “Man of Steel,” from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures, was the Studio’s top-grossing release for the year, at $668 million globally. Among the other worldwide box office highlights for 2013 are: “Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures Pacific Rim,” with $411 million; “The Hangover Part III,” also in partnership with Legendary, at $362 million; “The Great Gatsby,” in partnership with Village Roadshow Pictures, at $351 million; New Line Cinema’s “The Conjuring,” with $318 million; and “We’re the Millers,” also from New Line, at $270 million.

Moving into 2014, the Studio’s First Quarter titles include “Her,” presently in limited release and due out wide on January 10; “The LEGO Movie,” in partnership with Village Roadshow Pictures, slated for February 7; “Winter’s Tale,” also with Village Roadshow Pictures, on February 14; and Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ “300: Rise of an Empire,” due out March 7.

This Press Release is courtesy Time Warner www.timewarner.com

Hearst achieved record revenue and profit in 2013, and recorded its fourth consecutive year of revenue and profit growth since the recession of 2008–2009.

Strong year-over-year performances came from our cable networks, A+E Networks and ESPN; Fitch Ratings; healthcare businesses First Databank and MCG, formerly Milliman Care Guidelines, acquired last December; and the newspaper group. Our U.S. magazines grew profit in 2013, and our television stations exceeded expectations and are poised for a strong 2014 with the return of the Olympics and congressional and gubernatorial elections. Our ventures team scored a very strong return on its investment in digital marketing company HootSuite.

Hearst’s outstanding performance reflects the quality of what our talented colleagues create every day for the screen and the page, and the strong and innovative partnerships we forge with our clients around the world. Our profit achievement also reflects the hard work of so many who constantly look for more efficient ways to do business without compromising the quality of what we offer customers.

Our business mix continues to evolve. Today, roughly 60 percent of our revenue comes from sources other than advertising revenue, including carriage fees for our cable networks and television stations, business-to-business and consumer subscription revenues, and marketing services fees. More than 20 percent of our revenue is derived from outside the U.S.
On June 1, our executive vice chairman, Frank Bennack, ended his second tour of duty as our chief executive. A few weeks later, he and I spoke with our chairman, Will Hearst, and the rest of our board members about the fundamental principles of Frank’s highly successful 30-year run and how they form the basis of the company’s future growth strategy.

We boiled them down to four, not necessarily in order of importance:
I. Continue Remaking Our Business Mix for Growth
II. Strengthen Our Core Portfolio
III. Become a More Digital Company
IV. Secure and Retain Top Talent
I’m going to discuss each of these in the context of what we accomplished in 2013 and what we will continue to do in the years ahead.

I. Continue Remaking Our Business Mix for Growth
A hallmark of Frank’s tenure has been the continued allocation of capital to the sectors of the media and information landscape that have offered the best prospects for growth. While this is of course harder than it sounds, we are confident that there are two areas where we have shown particular skill and where the underlying growth prospects are quite strong: business media and entertainment.

Hearst Business Media, led by Rich Malloch, was active in 2013. In December, we announced the acquisition of 85 percent of Homecare Homebase, a leader in the field of providing software, data and analytics to the fast-growing homecare and hospice industries. Homecare Homebase, founded and led by CEO April Anthony, becomes the fourth significant company in the Hearst healthcare portfolio, along with First Databank, Zynx Health and MCG. In its first full year under our ownership, MCG, led by President and CEO Jon Shreve, outperformed our optimistic expectations and finished the year with profits up more than 25 percent. First Databank acquired Design Clinicals, a company that helps hospitals reconcile the drugs a new patient is already taking with those the hospital seeks to prescribe. Under President and CEO Paul Taylor, our 50 percent–owned Fitch Ratings business acquired 7city Learning, a financial services industry training company based in London that we’ve renamed Fitch Learning. Meanwhile, our two principal automotive businesses kept their amazing profit-growth streaks alive: For National Auto Research/Black Book, headed by Tom Cross, it was its 22nd straight year of profit growth and for Motor Information Systems, under Kevin Carr, its 20th straight year.
At our cable networks, A+E
Networks announced that it will turn its BIO channel into a new lifestyle channel called FYI, bringing A+E’s singular reputation for creativity to such lifestyle subjects as food, home and travel. ESPN, led by President John Skipper, announced the creation of a new cable channel with the hugely successful SEC sports conference, featuring such powerhouse college sports teams as Alabama, Auburn and Missouri. And ESPN has secured exclusive coverage of the US Open starting in 2015, further enhancing its continuing coverage of the four major professional tennis tournaments.
Our partnership with prolific television producer Mark Burnett, ONE THREE MEDIA, also had a great 2013 on the strength of its productions The Voice on NBC and Shark Tank on ABC, as well as the success of VIMBY, a 50 percent–owned ONE THREE venture that makes commercial video for key partner companies such as Wal-Mart. Mark and his wife, Roma Downey, also partnered with us to produce HISTORY’s hugely successful series The Bible.

II. Strengthen Our Core Portfolio
We continue to invest in our longtime franchise businesses of local television, magazines and newspapers. We supported our highly successful Omaha television station KETV by acquiring the iconic downtown train station in Omaha and beginning the process of turning it into KETV’s new home. We also became the first TV station group to partner with its network to launch TV Everywhere streaming applications when we announced our partnership with Disney’s ABC network in May.
Our magazine group under David Carey launched an ambitious upgrade of all our Web and mobile products, beginning with leaders Cosmopolitan.com and ELLE.com, that will be fully unveiled in early 2014. Cosmopolitan continued to develop its branded products with the announcement of a conference business in partnership with the William Morris Endeavor agency. And Seventeen announced an exciting partnership in the fast growing world of streaming video by teaming with Dreamworks’ AwesomenessTV venture on a new streaming network for the teen market.
And Hearst Newspapers President Mark Aldam’s investment in the group’s LocalEdge suite of digital marketing services products for small business customers around the country continues to bear fruit as the initiative turned solidly profitable in 2013 with revenue more than doubling. More than 40 other media entities have also signed on to sell the LocalEdge product suite in their markets, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, New York Daily News and Newsday. And LocalEdge just signed its first international customer, Australia’s Fairfax newspaper group.

III. Become a More Digital Company
To truly succeed we can’t just offer our customers digital products; we have to become a more digital company in the way we operate our businesses every day. Under the leadership of Chief Technology Officer Phil Wiser, we launched an audience exchange to connect, for the first time, our clients to the more than 100 million unique users who visit Hearst digital products every month. We created Digital Studios to allow for fast prototyping, building and testing of new digital products. We introduced a new video platform that allows any of our journalists around the world to shoot and edit on their mobile phones. And we convened hackathons in our New York headquarters for our fashion magazine brands and on the campus of the University of Michigan for our automotive brands.

IV. Secure and Retain Top Talent
We are dedicated to developing and promoting our key talent from within the organization wherever possible. But as the world changes at such a rapid pace, it is also incumbent upon us to reach out to new sources of talent to gain new perspectives and new skills. We executed on both of those efforts in 2013.
Beginning with internal promotions, David Barrett completed at year-end an outstanding 15-year run as CEO of Hearst Television and handed over leadership to his deputy, Jordan Wertlieb, president, and himself a 20-year veteran of the group. David will remain very active as a Hearst trustee and board member. Mike Hayes, general manager at our Pittsburgh station, WTAE-TV, came to New York as an SVP and group head.

At our A+E Networks, CEO Abbe Raven became chairman after eight incredibly strong years as CEO and having run the A&E, HISTORY and BIO channels prior to becoming CEO in 2005. Nancy Dubuc, a 15-year veteran of A+E, became CEO. Nancy also named four people as general managers of our principal networks: David McKillop at A&E, Dirk Hoogstra at HISTORY, Rob Sharenow at Lifetime and Jana Bennett at the forthcoming FYI and Lifetime Movie Network.

New leadership at our Entertainment & Syndication group also came from within, as the deputy in that group, George Kliavkoff, partnered with the company’s chief creative officer, Neeraj Khemlani, himself a former deputy head of E&S, to become new co-presidents.

Dr. Greg Dorn, a 14-year veteran of our medical businesses, became executive vice president and deputy group head of Hearst Business Media, with primary responsibility for our healthcare businesses under Rich Malloch. Two top executives at our First Databank became executive vice presidents there, Bob Katter and Chuck Tuchinda.
We also successfully went outside of the company for top talent. Hearst Magazines remade its digital leadership team with three major new hires: Troy Young, former president of Say Media, as president of digital; Todd Haskell, former head of digital advertising at The New York Times, as head of digital advertising; and Mike Smith, former president of Forbes.com, to lead our innovation efforts marrying technology and advertising sales.

Private equity executive Jeff Johnson, a former publisher of the Los Angeles Times, became publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle, and Nancy Barnes, who led the Minneapolis Star Tribune to a Pulitzer Prize last year, became editor of the Houston Chronicle. Mike DeLuca, a Groupon sales leader, became president of LocalEdge.

Dr. Justin Graham, formerly chief medical information officer at NorthBay Healthcare in California, became head of innovation for our healthcare operations, and David Vogler left digital ad agency The Wonderfactory to become executive creative director of Hearst Digital Studios.

All our operating groups benefit from the great support provided by our corporate teams: finance, led by Chief Financial Officer Mitch Scherzer; legal, led by Chief Legal and Development Officer Jim Asher and General Counsel Eve Burton; and communications, headed by Chief Communications Officer Debra Shriver.

We head into 2014 with a great deal of optimism due in no small measure to the innovation and dedication each of you show to Hearst each day. On behalf of our chairman, Will Hearst, and executive vice chairman, Frank Bennack, I want to thank you for all you do to make this the great company that we are all so fortunate to serve.

This Press Release is courtesy of Hearst.com

CUPERTINO, California—December 16, 2013—Apple® today announced that BEYONCÉ has become the fastest selling album ever on the iTunes Store® worldwide with an unprecedented 828,773 albums sold in just its first three days. BEYONCÉ also broke the US first week album sales record with 617,213 sold and proved to be a global success going to number one in 104 countries.

The self-titled, BEYONCÉ, is the fifth solo studio album from Beyoncé, which was made available exclusively worldwide on the iTunes Store on December 13 by Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia Records. The self-titled set is the artist’s first visual album. BEYONCÉ is infused with 14 new songs and 17 visually stunning, provocative videos shot around the world from Houston to New York City to Paris, and Sydney to Rio de Janeiro, all before the album’s release. The album represents Beyoncé’s biggest sales week ever.

The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular music store with a catalog of over 26 million songs and is available in 119 countries. The iTunes Store is the best way for iPhone®, iPad®, iPod®, Mac® and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music online. All music on the iTunes Store comes in iTunes Plus®, Apple’s DRM-free format with high-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

This Press Release is courtesy Apple.com

WASHINGTON—Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Cornyn (R-TX),
Members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, today introduced legislation
that would classify the illicit online streaming of copyrighted content a felony, and
bring it into line with other forms of content theft.
An entertainment industry coalition, including the Independent Film & Television
Alliance® (IFTA®), the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) and
the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) praised the bill for
reconciling the current legal disparity between the unlawful distribution of content
through streaming and peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading.

“It is high time that the punishment fit the crime. Illegal streaming of stolen
content is growing and poses a threat to the profitability of movie theaters and to
the jobs of our 160,000 employees in the U.S.” said John Fithian, president and
CEO of NATO. “We thank Senators Klobuchar and Cornyn and recommend
bipartisan support for the passage of this important legislation.”
“The illegal streaming of copyrighted content is a scourge on the independent
film and television community, particularly the small and medium-sized
businesses without the resources to effectively enforce their intellectual property
rights,” said Jean Prewitt, IFTA President & CEO. “We strongly believe
government enforcement and consequences are the only effective remedies for
these types of illegal activities. We highly commend Senators Klobuchar and
Cornyn for this significant legislative proposal to ensure illegal streaming is
treated as seriously under the law as is illegal downloading.”

Michael O’Leary, Executive Vice President, Government Affairs for the MPAA,
added: “Criminals are stealing, trafficking, and profiting off the investment that
our workers devote to creating the quality films and TV shows that entertain a
worldwide audience and bolster the American economy. The online distribution
mechanisms utilized by thieves may differ, but to the 2.4 million American
workers whose livelihoods depend on our industry, the end result of content theft
is the same: lost jobs, declining incomes, and reduced health and retirement
benefits for them and their families. We thank Senators Klobuchar and Cornyn
for introducing this important legislation to standardize the legal treatment of
online content theft and helping ensure that federal law keeps pace with the changing face of criminal activity. We look forward to working with Members in
the House and Senate towards its swift passage.”

Under current federal law, a legal distinction exists between illegal streaming and
downloading – two methods of distributing the same stolen, digital content. This
legislation would make the illegal streaming of copyrighted works a felony,
thereby standardizing its criminal classification with that of illegal P2P
downloading, already a felony. In March, the Office of U.S. Intellectual Property
Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel presented Congress with legislative
recommendations to improve IP enforcement efforts, which included clarifying
this aspect of intellectual property law.
COURTESY OF INDEPENDENT FILM AND TELEVISION ALLIANCE

This year the Academy Awards will feature all areas of show business. Directors, producers, actors, supporting actors and all other industry professionals will be featured in the awards

A race is being organized for members of the Atrian football club to support those in the community who are underprivileged.