After days of rumor and speculation that AOL's subscription model would be completely scrapped, Time Warner said the press reports had been based on "unauthorized disclosures, including incomplete and largely erroneous financial information," reports MediaPost. Time Warner said it would "present the future business strategy of its AOL division at a separate meeting," on August 2, after its second-quarter earnings report.

Despite terming the AOL leak "unauthorized," Time Warner did not deny that it is considering scrapping the subscription model entirely to instead focus on online advertising revenue. News of the apparent strategy was first reported by the Wall Street Journal last week.

This week, the Journal reported that AOL's overall revenue (not counting AOL's European Internet-access business) would probably drop from $6 billion this year to $4.9 billion in 2008, before going back up, to $5.3 billion, in 2009.