Rupert Murdoch steps down as News Corp and Fox chairman

John Howard has paid tribute to Rupert Murdoch who is stepping down as chairman of Fox and News Corp – ending a seven-decade run as one of the world’s most influential media moguls.

Rupert Murdoch is stepping down from the global media empire he built over seven decades, putting his eldest son Lachlan in charge of News Corp from November.

The 92-year-old’s decision to step down, revealed in an email to staff on Thursday night, caps a remarkable career in which he revolutionised news and entertainment worldwide and became one of Australia’s most successful businessmen.

“For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles,” he said.

Mr Murdoch will be appointed as chairman emeritus of News Corp – the publisher of this masthead – and Fox Corporation in the United States when both companies hold annual meetings in November.

Rupert Murdoch has stepped down as Chairman of News Corp and Fox. Picture: Supplied

Lachlan Murdoch, 52, will become the sole chair of News Corp while continuing as the executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corporation.

His father praised him as a “passionate, principled leader” in a move that solidified Lachlan as his successor, 71 years after Sir Keith Murdoch died and passed control of his Adelaide newspaper to his 21-year-old son Rupert.

“Our companies are in robust health, as am I. Our opportunities far exceed our commercial challenges,” Mr Murdoch said in his email.

“We have every reason to be optimistic about the coming years – I certainly am, and plan to be here to participate in them.”

Lachlan Murdoch will succeed his father, Rupert, as the Chairman of News Corp. Picture: Bloomberg

After inheriting The News in Adelaide, Mr Murdoch set about developing an extraordinary conglomerate with iconic publishing, television and film brands that made him among the world’s most influential media barons.

He bought Sydney’s Daily Mirror in 1960 and launched The Australian – the national daily broadsheet newspaper – four years later before beginning his global expansion in 1969 with the acquisition of the News of the World and The Sun in the United Kingdom.

In the 1970s, Mr Murdoch moved to the US, where he started with a newspaper in Texas and went on to buy the New York Post, New York Magazine and The Village Voice.

He established News Corp in 1980 as the holding company for his burgeoning empire, which soon also included The Times and The Sunday Times in London, the Boston Herald and the Chicago Sun-Times.

Former Australian prime minister John Howard OM AC has paid tribute to Mr Murdoch, describing him as “talented and influential”.

Former prime minister John Howard with Rupert Murdoch who featured in the ABC's documentary series Howard On Menzies. Picture: Mark Rogers/ABC

“Rupert Murdoch is the most talented and influential world business figure Australia has produced. He changed the face of media and was always intensely interested in the battle of ideas. At Wapping in the 1980s he stared down the print unions thus striking a blow for free speech. His flagship publication, The Australian, is a great forum for political commentary,” he said.

Rupert Murdoch, pictured in 2017, has changed the media global landscape. Picture: Supplied

In 1985, after several television deals in Australia, Mr Murdoch took over Hollywood’s 20th Century Fox studio and six TV stations in some of America’s biggest cities, establishing Fox as the nation’s fourth TV network.

Under his leadership, Fox rewrote the rules of network programming with hits including The Simpsons and Married … With Children, while also shaking up America’s most popular sport by claiming the rights to the NFL’s National Football Conference in 1993.

Mr Murdoch launched Fox News in 1996, a 24-hour news channel that became the nation’s most watched cable news station in 2002 – a title it has held ever since.

Similarly in the UK, he launched Sky Television in 1988, creating Sky News as the country’s first 24-hour news channel and acquiring the rights to the English Premier League.

In Hollywood, he transformed 20th Century Fox from a struggling studio into a cinema powerhouse responsible for Avatar and Titanic, two of the highest grossing films of all time.

During his rapid expansion in the 1980s, Mr Murdoch also reclaimed the Herald and Weekly Times newspaper group his father had overseen after rising to prominence as a war correspondent.

Rupert Murdoch is stepping down from the global media empire he built over 70 years. Picture: AFP

His passion for newspapers continued with his Dow Jones deal in the US in 2007, giving him control of the Wall Street Journal which soon became the nation’s biggest selling paper.

News Corp Australia’s assets now include Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Brisbane’s Courier-Mail, Adelaide’s The Advertiser, news.com.au and Sky News Australia.

Other investments have included realestate.com.au, Australia’s pay TV network Foxtel and streaming services Binge and Kayo, book publishing giant HarperCollins, and the ill-fated purchase of social media network MySpace.

In 2012, Mr Murdoch split his companies into News Corp and 21st Century Fox, which was sold to Disney in 2019. He retained control of the newly formed Fox Corporation, which he briefly sought to reunite with News Corp last year.

Rupert Murdoch enters the New York Post newsroom in 1993. Picture: Reuters

He was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia – the country’s highest honour for outstanding achievement – in 1984 for his service to the media.

Lachlan Murdoch, who became the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox in 2015 and then the chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation in 2019, congratulated his father on his “remarkable 70-year career”.

“We thank him for his vision, his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination, and the enduring legacy he leaves to the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted,” he said in a statement.

“We are grateful that he will serve as Chairman Emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies.”

There were controversies and setbacks during Mr Murdoch’s 70-year career, including the 1990 debt crisis that nearly sank the company, the News of the World phone hacking scandal in the UK, and a $US787.5m settlement this year over a lawsuit alleging Fox News defamed a voting machine company in its coverage of the 2020 US election.

Rupert Murdoch with sons Lachlan (L) and James (R). Lachlan Murdoch will become the sole chair of News Corp while continuing as the executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corporation. Picture: AFP

Mr Murdoch, in his email to staff, said that while “neither excessive pride nor false humility are admirable qualities”, he was “truly proud of what we have achieved collectively through the decades”.

But he cautioned that the “battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought, has never been more intense”.

“My father firmly believed in freedom, and Lachlan is absolutely committed to the cause,” Mr Murdoch said.

“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.”

“In my new role, I can guarantee you that I will be involved every day in the contest of ideas. Our companies are communities, and I will be an active member of our community.”