• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, November 2, 2009

After 15 years at Time Inc., digital head Vivek Shah is leaving at the end of the year to pursue an as-yet-undetermined entrepreneurial endeavor, he tells Online Media Daily.

"I think it's about time that I do something different," said Shah, who would only say of his next move that it will be wholly digital, should take shape "sooner rather than later," and will "not necessarily" involve the publishing of content.

Of the four digital general managers that presently report to Shah, John Cantarella has been tapped to lead the pack in the new role of SVP and "uber GM," in Shah's words.

The move, first reported by paidContent, comes at a very difficult time for Time Inc. and the overall news publishing business. Indeed, Time just announced plans to cut about $100 million in expenses, which is expected to include hundreds of layoffs. It was only a year ago, in fall 2008, that the Time Warner cut 600 positions -- about 6% of its workforce at the time -- to generate about $150 million in savings.

While confident in the ability of his team to face present and future challenges, Shah admitted that times are tough for all publishers.

"It's all goes back to problem of analog dollars and digital dimes," he said, regarding the difficulty that publishers and advertisers are having adjusting to new market paradigms.

Time Inc. has recently suffered staggering declines in revenue due to the migration of eyeballs and ad dollars online, which has only been made worse by the broader recession. In the second quarter of 2009, publishing ad revenues were down 26%, while circulation revenues fell due to decreases in newsstand sales and renewals. This contributed to a 22.2% decline in Time Inc.'s overall revenues, which fell from $1.17 billion to $915 million. Through the end of the second quarter, Time Inc.'s total revenues are down 22.6% to $1.72 billion.

Shah is credited with launching CNNMoney.com in 2006 by pooling the digital resources of Fortune, Fortune Small Business, and Business 2.0, together with sister company CNN.

Shah at the time attributed the consolidation of Time Warner's Web properties to several industry trends: consumers' growing desire to get all their news from one source; a demand from advertisers and media buyers to scale their buys; and a strengthening ad market.

Shah also brokered an exclusive multiyear partnership with contextual ad service Quigo. The deal, which extended across all Time Inc. Web properties, was expected to generate an estimated $100 million over three years.