Lachlan Murdoch, the heir to the sprawling media empire whose politics are as conservative as his father Rupert’s, will take over the family business in November – the choice of continuity.
Lachlan is already president of Fox Corporation, the parent company of cable television network Fox News, and has long been considered the favorite over his brother James to succeed the family patriarch.
“Lachlan is supposedly the more conservative son of the two, James has more progressive politics,” said Reece Peck, a professor at New York University and author of “Fox Populism,” a book about the channel that is popular with American conservatives and the United States is the crown jewel of the Murdoch empire.
With the next U.S. presidential election approaching – a contest that promises to be a roller coaster ride, with Donald Trump leading as the Republican favorite despite multiple accusations – “it would make sense” to go for Lachlan Murdoch, Peck said.
Fox is likely aiming to “maintain its audience strategy, which is an audience hungry for conservative, partisan content,” the analyst told AFP.
“Ultimately, Fox is a victim of its own success — it has encouraged this demand for partisan, conservative content,” Peck said.
“And now there’s this fully developed market and audience that wants it.”
CEO of Fox Corporation
At 52, Lachlan Murdoch seemed the natural successor ahead of his adult siblings James, Prudence and Elisabeth.
Even before his appointment was announced on Thursday, Lachlan was already CEO of Fox Corporation, a position he has held since 2019, and chairman of News Corp, the global publishing and media group with a large presence in North America, Australia and the United Kingdom.
In 2020, under the scion’s leadership, Fox Corporation notably purchased Tubi – the free streaming platform with advertising that allowed Fox to maintain the level of its advertising revenue – for $440 million.
But the last few years have also been fraught with controversy: Lachlan played an operational role during the 2020 presidential election, when Fox News repeated false allegations of a rigged vote and deprived Trump of a second term in the White House.
The theory culminated in the violent invasion of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, when supporters of the former president attempted to stage an insurrection.
In April, Fox News agreed to pay a $787.5 million settlement in a defamation lawsuit brought by voting machine maker Dominion. It was alleged that the network knowingly and repeatedly pushed Trump’s false narrative that the voting machines were part of a conspiracy to rob him of victory against Joe Biden.
Up and down
Lachlan Murdoch was born in London in 1971 but grew up in the United States, where he attended elite schools in Aspen, Colorado, and New York.
With looks befitting his prep school ancestry, he graduated from Ivy League Princeton University with a degree in philosophy.
But his path within the family business was rocky.
His father gave him an early boost by putting Lachlan in charge of newspapers in Australia, an opportunity within News Corp. to rise.
The first-born son promoted investments in the Australian telecommunications group One. Tel, which eventually went bankrupt, and a digital real estate advertising company, REA Group, which is now thriving.
While living in the United States, Lachlan spun off from News Corp in 2005, a departure sparked by disputes with the late Roger Ailes, an ultra-conservative power broker at Fox News.
Lachlan retired to Australia with his wife Sarah, a model and television presenter, with whom he has three children, where he still lives frequently.
During this time he founded the investment company Illyria Pty.
The eldest boy returned a decade later at his tycoon father’s request, as the Murdoch empire was reeling over the infamous phone-hacking scandal involving the now-defunct British tabloid News of the World.
Lachlan took the helm of Fox Corporation in 2019, even as the empire was thinned following the $66 billion sale of 21st Century Fox, including its studios and film catalog, to Disney.
Lachlan’s rise coincides with the departure of his brother James, who resigned from News Corp in July 2020, criticizing editorial and strategic decisions, particularly at Fox News.
But even if Lachlan Murdoch takes charge, the battle for succession is not yet over.
Many observers have noted that the patriarch’s eventual death will reshuffle the cards, as each of Rupert’s first four children will have equal voting rights within the company.