Richard Parsons's handover at Time Warner is widely expected to usher in big changes at the company, which used to be the world's largest media group until Google came along.

Under Parsons, Time Warner simply hung together - shedding only its struggling music division. The chief executive retained AOL, the cause of many of the problems, but failed to turn it around. It is battling to reinvent itself as an ad-funded service like Yahoo! at a time when all the hot business models are linked to social networking.

The rest of the company that he will leave is of variable quality. Warner Brothers is arguably Hollywood's best studio, but television networks such as CNN and HBO have lost ground. The massive magazine publisher, home to Time and Britain's IPC, is successful enough, but not fast growing, while the US cable business is still chaotic after several acquisitions.

Now his successor, Jeff Bewkes, has to work out what works and what doesn't. It is hard to believe that the shape of the company will be the same a few years after he takes over.

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