Rupert Murdoch Steps Down as Chief of Fox Corp. and News Corp.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as leader of Fox Corp. and News Corp. The company announced Thursday that the 92-year-old patriarch will become chairman emeritus of both companies, while his eldest son Lachlan Murdoch, currently chief executive officer of Fox, will take over as chairman of News Corp., which owns the Wall Street Journal and New York Post.
Rupert Murdoch built an international media empire spanning his native Australia, the U.K. and America. He took over the stewardship of a string of local newspapers in Australia and New Zealand from his father and methodically gobbled up assets in the U.K. (News of the World, The Sun, The Times) and America (Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox). In 1986, he launched Fox Broadcasting, challenging the dominance of ABC, CBS and NBC. And in 1996, he premiered Fox News Channel as an alternative to what he viewed as the liberal bent of the established American media.
More from WWD
Graydon Carter on Air Mail's Evolution, Stores and Surviving the Internet
Joshua Glass Launches Family Style, New Quarterly Magazine at Intersection of Food and Culture
Murdoch cut an imposing figure for most of his career, using his newspapers to influence politics in London and Washington. And Murdoch and his children, including Elisabeth, Lachlan and James, from his second marriage to Anna Torv, inspired the venal and squabbling Roy clan of HBO’s recently concluded “Succession.”
But Murdoch’s stature began to wane when he sold a large chunk of his American holdings — including 20th Century Fox film and TV studios, and several entertainment cable networks — to Disney for $71 billion in 2019. The sale made Fox News Media the biggest asset in Murdoch’s slimmed down portfolio. The network has endured the release of reams of embarrassing internal communications collected as part of one lawsuit relating to its coverage of former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election and assertions of vote rigging. During questioning by Dominion lawyers, Murdoch said he did not believe there was a wide spread vote-rigging conspiracy and that several of the network’s hosts “went too far” in airing the false claims. In April, Fox News settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million. A second, $2.7 billion lawsuit brought by Smartmatic USA is still pending.
It’s unclear why Murdoch chose the current moment to step down atop the U.S. media empire he has run for decades. In a letter to employees announcing his decision, Murdoch said he and the company are in “robust health.”
“I can guarantee you that I will be involved every day in the contest of ideas,” he added. “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.”
But the 92-year-old billionaire also railed that the “battle for freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought, has never been more intense.”
“Self-serving bureaucracies are seeking to silence those who would question their provenance and purpose. Elites have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class. Most of the media is in cahoots with those elites, peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth.”
Best of WWD
