• by January 10, 2001

(AP) - Time magazine is relaunching Time Digital, a monthly spin-off magazine, as an Internet and technology lifestyle title that will contain a user's guide to America Online, the online giant that is buying Time Inc.'s parent company Time Warner Inc.

The new magazine, which will begin publishing in March under the title "On," will continue to be produced by Time magazine editors, who will have "total editorial control," Time Inc. said in a statement Tuesday.

But "On" will also a contain a section called "Inside AOL," a user's guide to the online service that will be produced by Time Custom Publishing, a separate division of Time Inc. that produces advertiser-sponsored publications.

The deal provides an early glimpse at how managers at Time Warner hope to take advantage of the pending combination with America Online Inc., which is still being reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission in Washington.

In another example of cross-promotion, AOL president Bob Pittman has said the online service, which has more than 26 million members, has already sold some 500,000 subscriptions to Time Inc. magazines to AOL customers.

Time Digital was originally launched as a quarterly special edition to Time magazine in 1995. Last year it became a stand-alone monthly magazine with a circulation of about 1 million.