A much-expected move has happened: Richard Parsons, the former CEO of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), is now stepping down as chairman of the company board, and current CEO Jeff Bewkes will take over, starting Jan. 1 next year. Bewkes took over from Parsons as CEO in January this year. The biggest media company in the world has seen many changes since then: it is spinning off Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), has merged New Line Cinema and closed Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures, and its unit Time Inc recently started layoffs of 600 employees.

This chairman change was all but decided when Bewkes took over, as he had a clause in his contract allowing him to resign if he wasn’t named chairman within a year, as WSJ points out. That meant the change had to be done by early 2009; hence this move. The exact contract clause from SEC filings: “Bewkes’ employment agreement provides that if he is not elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company by January 1, 2009, he may resign and be eligible to receive retirement treatment, but not be eligible for severance. The Committee sought to establish with this provision that the Board had not yet made, and wished to preserve its flexibility to make, a succession decision regarding the role of Chairman of the Board and sought to provide that the Board’s ultimate succession decision would have a financially neutral effect on Mr. Bewkes.” More in release.

• @ UBS Media Week: Bewkes: Time Warner Cable Split Still On Track For Early 2009
• Time Inc. Expected To Shed 250 Jobs Today; Shutters Cottage Living Mag
• Time Inc Mags Offer Buyouts To Guild Employees: Time, SI, People Ask For 78 Volunteers
• Time Warner Consolidates Film Business; Puts New Line Under Warner; Bewkes Memo Says Layoffs Coming