WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey becomes COO of AT&T

WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey is taking on even broader responsibilities with a promotion to president and chief operating officer at AT&T (which acquired and renamed Time Warner last year).

According to the official announcement, this is a new position reporting directly to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. Stankey will take on the new position on October 1 while continuing to serve as WarnerMedia CEO.

"Now is the time to more tightly align our collection of world-class content, scaled consumer relationships, technical know-how and innovative advertising technology," Stephenson said in a statement. He also described Stankey - who's been at AT&T since 1985 - as "an outstanding executive who has led nearly every area of our business, helped shape our strategy and excelled at operations throughout his career."

The company also announced that Jeff McElfresh will become CEO of AT&T Communications, replacing John Donovan, who is retiring. (FYI: TechCrunch is owned by AT&T competitor Verizon.)

These shifts come as WarnerMedia is preparing to launch its big streaming play HBO Max next year. The service will include HBO proper, along with other streaming content. It also comes after some notable departures at WarnerMedia, including HBO's Richard Plepler and Kevin Tsujihara of Warner Bros.

AT&T's CEO of Communications, John Donovan, to retire in October