Captain Lachlan may be News Corp’s master and commander but troubled waters lie ahead

1 week ago 3

Washington: Securing Lachlan Murdoch as the successor to the News Corp media empire is hardly the dawn of a new era, but it does clear the way for Rupert Murdoch’s elder son to steer the ship unencumbered.

On board that ship is valuable cargo, especially here in the United States – even if, like most media brands, the company faces economic headwinds amid changing consumer behaviour.

Lachlan Murdoch is regarded as the most conservative of his father’s children.

News Corp products are central in the political discourse, especially under President Donald Trump, who keenly watches Fox News and regularly appears on it, as do his cabinet secretaries and close aides.

It was Fox News’ strident conservatism that particularly aggrieved Lachlan’s brother, James, who publicly slammed News Corp and Fox’s coverage of climate change in 2020. This settlement, which buys out siblings James, Elisabeth and Prudence MacLeod for about $5 billion in total, effectively ends their potential bid to challenge Lachlan for control after Rupert’s death.

“It may have been an option until this point, but with the decision today … that kind of closes the book on things,” said Bruce Drushel, an emeritus professor of media at Miami University.

The assumption is that Lachlan will maintain the conservative position of most News brands. He is regarded as the most conservative of Rupert’s children – perhaps more so than his father, whose editorial sympathies have been capricious or expedient over the years.

The deal cements Lachlan Murdoch’s control over the empire until at least 2050.

But the Murdoch brands don’t all sing from the same song sheet on US politics and the Trump administration. That was made clear on Tuesday (AEST) when The Wall Street Journal – which Murdoch bought in 2007 – again angered the White House by breaking news on the friendship between Donald Trump and now-disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. It was the biggest story of the day in the US.

On Fox, though, prime-time host Sean Hannity was more interested in violent crime in Chicago and Charlotte – an important story, certainly – and Americans’ declining faith in capitalism alongside the success of democratic socialist New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.

“The real question here is: will various News Corp properties continue to have at least some freedom to cover Trump the way they choose to?” asks Drushel. “Will Lachlan try to come up with a single voice for News Corp properties here regarding US politics, or will he essentially stay the course and let them find their own way?”

Drushel says continuation of the status quo is the most likely outcome, though there is a possibility the stable could move even further right, especially if Lachlan proves more “ideologically determined” than his dad.

“Anyone that was thinking that an outcome of this [court case] was going to be any sort of radical change to the editorial positions of the Murdoch properties has had those hopes dashed tonight.”

Any custodian of News Corp would mess with Fox News’ winning formula at their peril. The network is thriving – it has established clear dominance over cable rivals CNN and MSNBC, and over the just-completed summer even beat broadcast networks ABC, NBC and CBS in prime time. Its late-night show Gutfeld! is also No.1 in the category, though it airs slightly earlier than others.

Nonetheless, Fox faces pressure from its slew of right-wing competitors: Newsmax, Real America’s Voice and any number of conservative streamers, podcasters and vloggers who can find a decent audience in the large US market, as well as the long-term decline of cable-TV news subscriptions.

To that end, Fox launched a subscription-based streaming service last month called Fox One, which bundles together sport and news.

Michael Socolow, a media historian at the University of Maine, said the Murdochs’ settlement was not at all surprising and reflected what the patriarch had always clearly wanted.

“It was always a long shot that the person in control of the company, Rupert Murdoch, would suddenly go for radical change. And this just confirms that the radical change won’t happen,” he said.

“Lachlan Murdoch’s greatest challenge was never going to be from his siblings. It was always going to be Fox News’ new competitors to their right and the precipitous decline in cable news subscriptions.”

Those challenges are now his to deal with – and his alone.

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