The Jeff Bewkes doctrine is so in motion already

Time Warner is selling off it's AOL France Internet business to Neuf Cegetel for about $365 million signaling the start of what many on Wall Street will call a long overdue diet plan. The company put a cluster of magazines on the block earlier this week and now they are trimming up the AOL unit. When Jeff Bewkes takes over Time Warner will be a lean mean media machine. Under the agreement, Neuf Cegetel will acquire AOL's Internet access business in France, including its 500,000 broadband customers. The French company will also acquire its ASME operation, which manages AOL France's customer service operations. Earlier this week, Time Warner said it reached an all-cash deal to sell AOL Germany's Internet access business to Telecom Italia SpA for about $870 million. Time Warner has said it wants to shed AOL's U.K. access business as well. Guess they are only interested in AOL's U.S. business Trimming TW [TYD]