KEEP AN EYE ON BOB "PITCHMAN"

Known as ''Bob Pitchman,'' Robert W. Pittman, forty-seven, is a darling of Wall Street. His business savvy and track record -- a résumé filled with high-level jobs in entertainment and new-media companies -- make him the AOL Time Warner executive to watch, both for hints of the company's future and clues to its attitude toward journalism.

Pittman began his career as a disk jockey in his hometown, Jackson, Mississippi, at fifteen. At stations in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and New York, Pittman became one of the most successful radio program directors of the '70s. By the time he was twenty-seven, he had created the programming for MTV, which launched in 1981. Said to possess an unusual knack both for creative and analytic thinking, Pittman helped make MTV the first basic cable network to become profitable. Since record companies paid for the music videos, much of MTV's programming content was free to the network.

Pittman was named c.e.o. of MTV networks in 1983. His tenure saw the redesign and relaunch of Nickelodeon, the creation of VH-1 and Nick at Nite, the expansion of MTV into Europe, Australia, and Japan, and the company's initial public offering in 1984. Three years later, after an unsuccessful attempt to buy out the network, Pittman co-founded Quantum Media, which was sold to Time Warner in 1989. Pittman became an executive assistant to Time Warner's Steve Ross. As c.e.o. of Time Warner Enterprises, in 1990 he took over the company's Six Flags amusement parks. (In 1996 his ex-wife, Sandy Hill Pittman, was one of the climbers on an ascent of Mount Everest that would become the subject of John Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air, after several other climbers died as a result of a sudden blizzard.)

Pittman came to AOL in 1996, during a customer uprising over the service's perpetual busy signals. Pittman focused the company on upgrading its service and consumer-friendliness, and is widely credited with helping AOL navigate the troubled waters. Today, with all three AOL operating units reporting to him (AOL, CompuServe, and AOL Studios), Pittman acts as the day-to-day operating chief under chairman Stephen Case.

Addressing a meeting of the Time Inc. Alumni Group in May, Pittman built his case for the new company on the idea that "the unifying factor" among AOL Time Warner's divisions was consumer relationships. "What's this company built on? What's that relationship with the consumer? It's one thing. It's trust. It's the trust, it's the authority, it's the credibility, and to me it's the most precious resource we have," Pittman said. "At the heart of every company there is something that it is all about, and that's the thing that you wrap your arms around and you never let anything come near and you don't even let anyone consider changing that. And I am very pleased because I think this company -- and now we look at AOL Time Warner being built from the beginnings of this -- is really built around that. We have the finest journalists in the world, we have the finest organization that protects and supports journalists and at our heart is the journalism."

-- F.H.