Netscape morphing into Time Warner hub

AOL Time Warner is recasting its Netscape Web browser business into an Internet media hub full of Time Warner artists and publications, Reuters reports.

Netscape will become a hub for the wide array of core Time Warner media properties - such as Fortune and Time magazines and the 24-hour cable news network CNN. The shift acknowledges the dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, and frees AOL to focus on new media markets now taking shape on computers, phones and television. The revved-up Netscape media strategy also signals that AOL Time Warner is acting to integrate its varied business units following the completion of AOL's $106.2 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc in January.

"The browser is a crown jewel. However, six months from now, you won't consider Netscape to be a browser company," Netscape President Jim Bankoff told Reuters in an interview, referring to its early role in creating the first popular tool for surfing the Web.

So far about 18 Time Warner publication