Fox founder Rupert Murdoch surprise exit from his media empire, handing it to his son Lachlan
MEDIA / 11:20:21 AM
NEW YORK (NPR/AP) – Rupert Murdoch, the media magnate who built an unmatched global media empire over seven decades from a single newspaper he inherited in his native Australia, announced on Thursday that he would step down.
“I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change,” Murdoch wrote in a memo to employees at Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the many other properties that make up his two corporations, Fox Corp. and News Corp. “The time is right for me to take on different roles.”
Murdoch’s career has been marked by a singular drive for business success, an eagerness to have sway over elections and policies, and the repeated eruption of scandals. Fox News, which he founded in 1996, has played an increasingly prominent role in his profits, his influence, and his crises.
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Lachlan Murdoch said that “we are grateful that he will serve as chairman emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel.”
Fox News Channel has profoundly influenced television and national politics since its start in 1996, making Murdoch a hero to some and pariah to others. The 24-hour network converted the power and energy of political talk radio to television. Within six years, it outrated CNN and MSNBC, and still does.
But it’s been a rough year for Fox, which was forced to pay $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit related to its coverage of false claims following the 2020 presidential election. Fox also fired its most popular personality, Tucker Carlson.
Stock in Fox Corp., while positive this year, began to decline early in 2022, due in part to lawsuits and investor anxiety.
Besides Fox News, Rupert Murdoch started the Fox broadcast network, the first to successfully challenge the Big Three of ABC, CBS and NBC, with shows like “The Simpsons.” He owns The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. He slimmed his corporate holdings with the 2019 sale of many entertainment assets to the Walt Disney Co.
Murdoch has also controlled the New York Post, which, like Fox, has promoted his conservative world view.
Despite Murdoch’s advanced age, Thursday’s announcement took some by surprise.
“I do find it shocking because I figured that Rupert would be around until he couldn’t take a breath,” said writer Claire Atkinson, who’s working on a biography of Murdoch.
In a letter Thursday to staff, Murdoch thundered about elites who have “open contempt for those who are not members of their rarified class.” Murdoch’s letter made it clear he doesn’t consider himself one of them, despite his status as a media executive and his family’s wealth, estimated by Forbes in 2020 at about $19 billion.
He also indicated his retirement won’t include much beach time.
“I can guarantee you that I will be involved every day in the contest of ideas,” he wrote. “Our companies are communities, and I will be an active member of our community. I will be watching our broadcasts with a critical eye, reading our newspapers and websites and books with much interest.”
Murdoch and his family, particularly children James, Lachlan, Elisabeth and Prudence, were said to be the model for the HBO drama “ Succession.”
“Rupert is certainly engineering a cleaner exit than Logan Roy’s departure from WaystarRoyco,” said former CNN president Jon Klein, who consulted on the series. “And he’s leaving behind a lot less of a mess.”
That may be the case — for now, said Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff, who next week is publishing a book, “The End of Fox News.”
“He is 92, and that has taken a toll on him, of course, but the company, too,” Wolff told The Associated Press. “He has remained up until today the singular decision-maker, and he can’t communicate what he wants and people don’t understand what he wants” like they did in the past.
Major changes are unlikely right away under Lachlan Murdoch, who’s largely been running things as CEO for a couple of years.
When Murdoch dies, control of the Fox empire will revert to his four adult children, each of whom has an equal say in the business, Wolff said. “That’s when the real new chapter begins,” he said.