Richard Parsons, the chief executive of Time Warner, is poised to announce that he will hand over the top job at the CNN to Harry Potter conglomerate to longstanding number two Jeff Bewkes.

The announcement of the end of the African-American’s five and a half year tenure could come as soon as next week, after the matter was discussed at a board meeting in London on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

Technically, no final decision was taken by the board — otherwise Time Warner would have had to make an immediate disclosure — but it is an open secret at the New York based group that the handover is “coming soon”. Some now believe that it is imminent, and well before a previously disclosed backstop date at end of the year.

Mr Parsons’ contract formally expires in May 2008 and it is not clear if that will be honoured precisely. He may also continue as chairman for a short period after that while Bewkes beds in. Mr Parsons himself started as just chief executive until the enforced departure of former AOL boss Steve Case in 2003.

The handover is widely expected to be followed by a review of strategy — because Mr Bewkes is widely felt to be less wedded to Time Warner’s existing corporate structure, which makes it the largest traditional, content-producing media group in the world.

Mr Parsons held together Time Warner during a difficult period after the merger with AOL soured — and maintained the conglomerate structure of the group in the face of pressure from corporate raider Carl Icahn. But the stock price — $17.72 yesterday morning — is little changed from the $17 to $19 range in the chief executive’s first month in charge in May 2002.

However, Mr Bewkes is described as far less sentimental, and could preside over a sale or spin-off the still struggling AOL and its majority-owned cable division, which the company has no present intention of replicating internationally.

Time Warner’s businesses are grouped in five divisions, ranging from the Warner Brothers and New Line film studios, to the Time Inc magazine division, with television networks such as Turner Broadcasting, AOL and US cable networks completing the set. It earned $2.27 billion in the first half, on revenues of $22.16 billion.

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