Rupert Murdoch to step down as executive chair of News Corp, co-chair of Fox
The 92-year-old will exit roles atop News Corp and Fox and will be appointed chairman emeritus with his son Lachlan taking over as sole chair of both companies.
Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-born businessman who went from running a small Adelaide newspaper to creating a multi-billion-dollar global media empire spanning news, entertainment and cinema, has announced he is stepping down as chairman of his companies at the age of 92.
Mr Murdoch’s eldest son Lachlan, 52, will take over as the sole chair of News Corp and continue as executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corporation.
“On behalf of the Fox and News Corp boards of directors, leadership teams, and all the shareholders who have benefited from his hard work, I congratulate my father on his remarkable 70-year career,” said Lachlan Murdoch. “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.”
In a statement the company said that Mr Murdoch, currently chairman of Fox Corporation and executive chairman of News Corp, would step down from all his roles as of November when the companies hold their annual meetings. Mr Murdoch will be appointed Chairman Emeritus of each company.
Mr Murdoch said: “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, knowing that we have truly talented teams and a passionate, principled leader in Lachlan who will become sole chairman of both companies.
“Neither excessive pride nor false humility are admirable qualities. But I am truly proud of what we have achieved collectively through the decades, and I owe much to my colleagues, whose contributions to our success have sometimes been unseen outside the company but are deeply appreciated by me.”
Mr Murdoch’s career spanned an era which saw the transformation of the global media landscape with traditional mainstream media challenged by the rise of 24/7 cable news, the internet and social media. Throughout his career, Mr Murdoch sought to invest early in these new frontiers when opportunities presented.
Mr Murdoch said his companies were in “robust health’’ and he had every reason to be optimistic about the coming years.
“The battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought, has never been more intense,” he said.
“My father firmly believed in freedom, and Lachlan is absolutely committed to the cause. 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.”
Mr Murdoch, the second of four children of Sir Keith Murdoch and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, was just 21 when he took over the running of the Adelaide news upon the death in 1952 of Sir Keith, a media proprietor and war correspondent.
He founded Australia’s only national broadsheet The Australian in July 1964, and then greatly expanded his Australian media presence with the 1986 takeover of the Herald and Weekly Times.
News Corp’s Australian media assets now include Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, Brisbane’s Courier Mail, Adelaide’s The Advertiser, the Hobart Mercury and Sky News Australia amongst others. But Mr Murdoch was not content with confining himself to Australia and from the late 1960s he sought to expand his business interests into both the United Kingdom and the United States.
In Britain he bought the tabloid mastheads News of the World and The Sun before acquiring the then broadsheets The Times and The Sunday Times. He shook up the British media landscape in the 1980s when he took on and defeated the print unions in Wapping which had opposed job losses flowing from the increasing automation of papers.
Mr Murdoch also expanded into the US market in the 1970s most notably with the tabloid, the New York Post, and in 2007 he acquired Dow Jones & Company which gave him control of the prized masthead, the Wall Street Journal. In 1974 he moved to New York and in 1985 he gave up his Australian citizenship to become a US citizen to allow him to expand his US business interests.
In the 1980s he moved into the movie and publishing world, buying Twentieth Century Fox and publisher HarperCollins.
But Mr Murdoch’s biggest move in the US was the 1996 creation of Fox News 24-hour cable channel to meet what he believed was a strong market for a conservative news. That hunch proved to be correct with Fox News now the dominant cable news channel in the US.
There were also controversies in his long career, including in 2011 over News of the World reporters hacking phones to get stories.
Mr Murdoch’s critics also claimed he had undue political influence and that he used his publications to influence election outcomes and shape public opinion.
His supporters backed him as a bold business titan and someone who challenged political elites.
Under his ownership, News Corp’s Australian newspapers have had a centre-right political leaning but have editorialised in favour of both major parties over the years, including initially for Labor prime ministers Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd.
Mr Murdoch has six children Lachlan, James, Elisabeth, Prudence, Grace and Chloe.
He said he would still be actively involved in the “contest of ideas’’.
“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. I will be watching our broadcasts with a critical eye, reading our newspapers and websites and books with much interest, and reaching out to you with thoughts, ideas, and advice. When I visit your countries and companies, you can expect to see me in the office late on a Friday afternoon,” Mr Murdoch said in a note to staff.
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