Time Warner Supports Education and the Arts

Time Warner focuses its community support on the arenas of education and the arts. The corporate office directly funds local and national organizations that nurture creativity and diversity in the arts. The company’s arts funding is centered in the areas of broadening public access to the arts, engaging undeserved youth with the arts, fostering diverse voices in the arts, and capital campaigns and corporate memberships. They also contribute funds to programs that are working to strengthen public schools in New York City, and close the college-opportunity gap so children from all areas and financial backgrounds will be given the necessary tools to further their education in college. Time Warner details its philanthropic support in the Community section of their website. You can take a look here: http://www.timewarner.com/corp/citizenship/community/index.html.

The divisions of Time Warner run their own programs that also follow the company’s focus on education and the arts. For example, the AOL Aspirations Fund awards grants of up to $10,000 each to middle schools and high schools that are dedicating themselves to providing their students with opportunities and helping them envision positive futures. Time Warner Cable recognizes creative K-12 teachers with its annual National Teacher Awards. Turner Broadcasting employees provide 10,000 hours of volunteer service to more than 40 nonprofit sites every year as part of Turner Volunteer Day. The company posts the totally number of financial contributions it has made here: http://www.timewarner.com/corp/citizenship/community/community_more/index.html.

This year, Time Warner established the Principals of Excellence Awards to honor principals of the New York City public schools. Time Warner selected five principals based on their quality of leadership and dedication to students. Each award includes a $20,000 grant for the school and a $5,000 honorarium that will go directly to the principal. Time Warner began these awards in order to honor the men and women who are vital to the improvement of our schools and raising the academic achievement levels of students from all backgrounds. You can read more about the Principals of Excellence awards here: http://www.timewarner.com/corp/citizenship/community/principals_awards/index.html.

Time Warner has chosen a single focus to support in the community in order to ensure their efforts connect to their values. Concentrating their resources on a single focus allows the company to make a greater difference in one area. Time Warner’s community relations program supports the mission of the company. Time Warner’s mission involves encouraging innovation and originality. The arts embody these qualities, therefore by supporting the growth of the arts Time Warner is helping innovation and originality to thrive. In addition, their philanthropic focus on public schools contributes to the success of their businesses in the future. The media industry relies on continuous new ideas for their success, which can only be made possible if younger generations are attending college and receiving the proper education to develop these ideas.

In addition to funding, Time Warner should hold more events to raise awareness for the need to support the arts and education. Due to the company’s widespread reputation, an event would attract the nation in addition to the local community. I think the company could increase the effect they have on the causes they support if they held more events because it would spread the importance of contributing to this cause. I also think holding events would show that the company is actively involved with the causes they support. Funding is a great way to contribute to the community, but an event will give people the impression that the company is taking their community relations efforts to another level.

Crisis at Time Warner Inc.

Time Warner Inc. experienced a crisis in January 2007 when Time Inc. cut 289 magazine jobs to focus more on Web sites. Time Inc. laid off employees from its top magazines, including People, in order to invest more in the magazines’ Web sites. The cuts were deeper than expected, with 172 of them coming from the editorial side and 117 from the business side. Time Magazine lost 50 employees and shut down its bureaus in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta. Seven jobs were also cut from the magazines Washington Bureau. Sports Illustrated lost approximately 30 employees due to the layoffs. People Magazine lost 44 editorial workers and shut down its bureaus in Washington, Miami, Chicago, and Austin, but created seven new correspondent jobs around the country. The motivation behind Time Inc.’s layoffs was the movement of readers and advertisers from print to web. The company decided to streamline its publications in order to strengthen its online presence. You can read more about the layoffs from this Washington Post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/18/AR2007011801706.html.

The PR people at Time Warner Inc. handled the crisis by being prepared. The company had been discussing the possibility of layoffs for a while so the PR people were able to anticipate the crisis. In addition, the PR people at the company had dealt with layoffs before when AOL merger with Time Warner Inc. in 2001. Therefore, they were able to look back on how they handled that crisis and mimic positive actions they took and change actions that did not benefit the company.

The PR people ensured that the proper spokespersons promptly responded to the concerns of employees. Larry Hackett, People’s managing editor, delivered a message to its employees by speakerphone from the magazine’s New York offices. They made leadership available to the media for responses. After the news broke, the PR people issued responses from executive level employees. Ann S. Moore, Time Inc.’s chief executive said in a statement, “We need to continue to evolve to meet the cost pressures and challenges presented by our rapidly shifting industry.” The layoffs, she said, “are part of a restructuring necessary to sustain our progress.” John Huey, editor in chief of Time Inc., also sent out a memo stating that the cuts were being made to help “move quickly into a future of flexible, multiplatform content.” These quotes from Ann S. Moore and John Huey can be found in the NY Times article about the layoffs here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/business/media/19time.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/S/Seelye,%20Katharine%20Q.

In addition, they accommodated the media’s needs and were easily accessible. When I interned at Time Warner Inc. over the summer, the company would designate phone lines to media calls on days when there would be many media requests. They also logged the media requests to ensure each received a timely response. Time Inc. also monitored its news coverage about the layoffs. Time Inc. uses Cision, a monitoring service, to log its print and broadcast news coverage. You can take a look at the Cision website: http://us.cision.com/. This helps the company to determine how its messages are working and see the context in which people are discussing the company. The company is then able to tailor their messages according to the news coverage. Time Warner Inc. also expressed regret for the 300 layoffs. In Larry Hackett’s announcement to the employees at People he said he regretted the cuts, but that they were necessary for “the health of the magazine” as the company addresses the “needs of the Web site, specials and other technologies that will be emerging.” The company apologized for the problem, but emphasized why the layoffs were necessary.

If I was a PR person at Time Warner Inc. during this crisis I would have expressed more concern for the well-being of the employees. I would want the CEO to express restitution in a statement to show that the company is compensating the employees who were affected by the layoffs. I think the public would have been less outraged by the company’s actions if they had communicated with them about what they were doing for employees that were laid off. I also would have set up a toll-free number that employees and the public could use to contact the company with questions and concerns. I think it would have also been a good idea for the CEO, Ann S. Moore, to have held a face-to-face meeting at each division of Time Inc. so the employees would feel that the company is concerned with their well-being despite the layoffs.