cover image To the End of Time: The Seduction and Conquest of a Media Empire

To the End of Time: The Seduction and Conquest of a Media Empire

Richard M. Clurman. Simon & Schuster, $22.5 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-69227-8

The ballyhooed merger of Time Inc., blue-chip publishing empire, and Warner Communications, high-flying pop entertainment conglomerate, was the biggest media merger ever and the last such highly leveraged deal in the booming 1980s. In a gossipy, juicy probe packed with details on the seamy side of Warner's business dealings, Clurman ( Beyond Malice ), a former Time Inc. journalist and executive, portrays top Warner honcho Steve Ross as a smooth-talking, seductive mogul with a checkered past who romanced Time's top management even as the fine print in the merger agreements punished stockholders and gave Warner a strong upper hand. Clurman focuses on the personalities, the disparate corporate cultures and the mixed results of the marriage thus far in a no-holds-barred inquiry that digs beneath the headlines to reveal the ills and challenges facing the new mega-empire. First serial to Vanity Fair; author tour. (Feb.)