NEW YORK Time Warner Inc.s second-quarter earnings fell 26 percent on declining subscriber fees at its AOL online unit and lower ad revenue at the Time publishing business, the media conglomerate said Wednesday.

The company affirmed its full-year financial targets after revenue rose at its film, cable and networks segments.

Time Warner also took legal and tax steps that make it possible to split its AOL online business and sell it in parts.

The New York-based media conglomerate said net income fell to $792 million, or 22 cents per share, from $1.07 billion, or 28 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, profit rose to 24 cents per share from 22 cents per share last year, when gains from the sale of assets bolstered earnings.

The adjusted result was a penny better than analyst expectations, according to Thomson Financial.

Revenue rose 5 percent to $11.6 billion, surpassing Wall Streets estimate of $11.46 billion.

AOL remained a burden on the companys bottom line. Subscription revenue fell 29 percent, pushing operating income down 36 percent. AOL scrapped fees for its e-mail service in favor of an ad-supported revenue model two years ago. The service still has 8.1 million subscribers.

But ad revenue rose only 2 percent to $530 million in the quarter. Display advertising fell 14 percent, as automotive, telecommunications and financial services companies curbed spending amid the slowing economy, Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes told investors on a conference call. He also blamed the decline on AOLs integrating several ad-sales platforms it bought that had been competing against each other, driving down prices.

Bewkes said he expects overall and display advertising growth rates at AOL to improve in the second half, calling the second quarter a low-water mark.

Time Warner has made no secret of its plans to sell AOL to focus on content production. Bewkes said the company has made the key decisions that will enable us to run AOLs access and audience businesses separately beginning in 2009.

The move also enables Time Warner to do something strategic with either of these businesses today, he said.

Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. has been named as a potential bidder for the dial-up access business. Both Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are considered to be interested in AOLs Web sites, which would boost either companys viewer traffic and ad revenue.

Time Warner previously announced it would sell the 84 percent of its cable operations that it still owns to shareholders later this year, giving Time Warner $9.25 billion from a special Time Warner Cable dividend. Bewkes said the spinoff was on pace to close by years end.