Time Warner Inc., the world’s largest publishing and broadcast company, promoted Jeff Bewkes to president, making him the most likely successor to Chief Executive Officer Richard Parsons.

Don Logan, who had shared the no. 2 position with Mr. Bewkes, will retire, Time Warner said in a statement yesterday.Mr.Bewkes,53,will also be chief operating officer.

Mr. Bewkes, who built HBO into the most-watched American cable network with shows such as “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City,” will gain responsibility for America Online, the focal point of criticism from shareholder Carl Icahn. Time Warner yesterday agreed to sell a 5% stake in AOL to Google for $1 billion.

“Bewkes has been successful at what he’s done in the past and hopefully he can maintain that,” said James McGlynn, who helps manage $6 billion at Summit Investment Partners in Cincinnati, including Time Warner shares. “Now he’s definitively no. 2, the heir apparent.”

Mr. Bewkes spent seven years running HBO and three years overseeing the Warner Bros. movie studios and Time Warner’s other cable networks. Mr. Logan, 61, and Bewkes had shared the no. 2 position to Mr. Parsons since 2002.

The changes were announced after a Time Warner board meeting in New York yesterday.

Shares of Time Warner fell 3 cents to $17.71 at 2:12 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They had fallen 8.8% this year before today.

Mr. Bewkes has been seen as the heir apparent at Time Warner. At a Museum of Moving Images gala dinner honoring Mr. Bewkes and Viacom’s co-president Leslie Moonves in May, Mr. Parsons introduced Mr. Bewkes, praising him for his achievements at HBO.

“Jeff is smart, there’s no question in anybody’s mind,” Mr. Parsons, 57, said at the dinner. “Everyone knows this man is the future for our company.”

Messrs. Bewkes and Logan both worked their way up the ranks at Time Warner before the company combined with America Online in a $112 billion transaction in 2001.

As AOL Time Warner stumbled amid tumbling revenue and a falling share price, Mr. Parsons took the helm and Messrs. Bewkes and Logan rose to become heads of divisions.

Mr. Bewkes in 2002 took over as chairman of the entertainment and networks group, including HBO, New Line Cinema, Turner networks, Warner Bros., and Warner Music. Mr. Logan became chairman of the media and communications group that included AOL, Time, the book group, and Time Warner Cable.

A graduate of Yale, Mr. Bewkes was named chief executive of HBO in 1995 after starting at the cable-TV network in 1979 as a marketing manager. In his time at HBO between 1995 and 2002, he expanded HBO into the largest American pay-television cable network.