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6:06 p.m. | Updated Weeks of negotiations between Time Warner and Meredith Corporation came to an end Wednesday when the two companies could not agree to a deal to join their magazines into a separate company. Instead, Time Warner said it would move ahead on its own with a plan to make Time Inc. an independent company.

The deal came apart after Time Warner in particular grew increasingly concerned over the future of four of Time Inc.'s iconic but struggling magazines — Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations who could not publicly discuss private conversations.

"This decision comes after a thorough review of options that would position Time Inc. for the most attractive growth opportunities while also best serving the interests of Time Warner Inc. and our shareholders," Jeffrey L. Bewkes, Time Warner's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. "As you know, Time Warner successfully completed similar separations in the past few years with Time Warner Cable and AOL. Both of those companies have thrived independently, and I anticipate the same for Time Inc."

Time Warner had originally planned to keep those titles, which executives believed have news gathering synergies with its CNN channel. But the thinking on the four magazines, which have faced industry-wide downturns in revenue, has changed, the people said. Time Warner executives, who had initially approached Meredith about a partnership, walked away, believing that it was a better option to spin off all 21 magazines without a partner.

Under the initial terms of the deal, Meredith, which publishes stalwarts like Ladies' Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens, would combine its magazines with a range of Time Inc.'s publications, including InStyle, People and Real Simple, and form a separate company. Time Inc.'s four news and sports titles would have remained with Time Warner. The new company would have borrowed money to pay a one-time dividend of around $1.75 billion back to Time Warner.

Meredith had wanted to form a women's magazine publisher that combined Time Inc.'s lucrative titles like People and InStyle with its stable of workout, parenting and cooking magazines. Meredith executives never had much interest in Time, Fortune, Money and Sports Illustrated, these people said.

Another sticking point in the negotiations was over which company would have ownership of Time Inc.'s London-based property, IPC Media, which publishes a mix of general interest and upmarket titles like In Style, Country Life and Decanter. IPC also includes an advertising business and a news trade and sales distribution company called Marketforce.

Founded by Edwin Thomas in 1902 with the publication of Successful Farming magazine, Meredith, based in Des Moines, Iowa, has always been a folksy domestic company with strong roots in the Midwest. Time Inc.'s international business would make for an odd pairing.

In addition to its 18 magazines, Meredith owns 13 local broadcast television stations including My KSMO TV in Kansas City, Mo., and WGCL 46 in Atlanta, which would remain in the existing Meredith structure.

The Time Inc. domestic titles that are at issue in the negotiations have struggled in recent years because of a tough advertising market and declining newsstand sales. Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated all experienced declines in advertising pages in 2012 compared with 2011, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Time's advertising pages declined by 12.2 percent and Sports Illustrated's by 5.5 percent. Money's pages dropped by 5 percent and Fortune experienced a 4 percent decline.

Time and Fortune have experienced overall declines in their circulation in the past five years of about two percent, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. But they have also suffered big declines in newsstand sales. Fortune's and Time's newsstand sales fell by 33 percent and 45 percent, respectively, from 2007 to 2012. Sports Illustrated suffered a 46 percent decline in newsstand sales. Money took the biggest hit with an overall circulation decline over the past five years of 7.6 percent and a 50 percent decline in newsstand sales.

Meanwhile, InStyle, a property that is far more desirable to Meredith, has seen its advertising pages grow by 5.4 percent between 2011 and 2012. Its overall circulation rose over the past five years by 4 percent. Its newsstand sales dropped by 24 percent.

Spokesmen for Time Warner and Meredith declined to comment on the negotiations.

Christine Haughney contributed reporting.