Time Warner to Consolidate Financial Sites

Time Warner will consolidate four of its business and financial Web sites under the CNNMoney.com brand, which will re-launch in January.

The new site will include content from the Time Inc. magazines Money, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, and Business 2.0, as well as from cable news channel CNN. Each of the properties’ ad sales team will sell inventory on the combined site, and Time Inc. will assemble a dedicated sales team for the site.

“We’ll continue our hybrid approach to ad sales in which all three affiliated divisions — Time Inc., CNN and AOL — will be able to represent the site in the marketplace,” said Carrie Welch, VP of communications for Fortune.

New video and rich media ad units are expected, but Welch could not immediately provide details. “We’re studying the ad unit question closely and should have a better sense in the coming months,” she said.

Vivek Shah, the general manager of the Fortune/Money group, will oversee all aspects of CNNMoney.com’s business operations. Chris Peacock, CNNMoney.com’s executive editor and VP, will continue to oversee site programming and editorial content.

The move should not affect AOL’s Personal Finance section, though CNNMoney.com and AOL Personal Finance share some content and tools, and collaborate on cross promotions and ad sales, according to AOL spokesperson Ruth Sarfaty.

“We think the personal finance category is big enough to accommodate many players,” she said. “We work with Time Inc. on some exclusive channels on AOL that are very successful — like our food offering, for example. And some of the Time Inc. brands have their own identities online. We work together where it makes sense for both companies.”

According to Nielsen//NetRatings, the combined, non-duplicated audience of the sites in July was 9.2 million unique visitors.