Political Observer’s vigorous pruning …

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Sep 13, 2025

Headline:Lachlan Murdoch, media’s newest mogul

Sub-headline:Fox’s decades-long succession battle is finally over

Editor: The Reader just has to wonder at the Economist chatter about the ‘Investiture of Lachlan Murdoch’. These Oxbridgers get all caught in Royalist Politics, of various hues, in 950 words. Fox News, the New York Post and Wall Street Journal are the the voises of a deeply reactiony Politics! Reaganite dullwit Peggy Noonan was Comic Relief, in the Wall Street Journal!

The thirty-year job interview has concluded at last. On September 8th the Murdoch family announced that it had resolved a decades-long dispute over who will control its television and newspaper empire when Rupert Murdoch, who is now 94, dies. The upshot of a complicated deal is that Lachlan Murdoch, the third-eldest of six Murdoch children, will inherit a controlling stake in Fox and News Corp, the family firms. Their combined market value is $42bn; their combined influence—with brands including Fox News, the New York Post and Wall Street Journal—is greater still. The agreement, announced on Mr Murdoch’s 54th birthday, makes him one of the world’s most powerful people for decades to come.

His ascension to the inky throne has been half a lifetime in the making. A gap-year stint at the printing presses in Sydney marked Mr Murdoch’s entry to the family firm. After graduating from Princeton University, where his dissertation was on Immanuel Kant’s ethics, he went to work for the Murdoch newspaper business in Australia. He later moved to Fox in New York. After falling out with Roger Ailes, the late, since-disgraced head of Fox News, he quit in 2005 and moved back to Australia to pursue his own investments. James, his younger brother, moved into pole position.

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Editor: This Economist pseudohistory demands vigoious pruning!

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Though born in London and raised in New York, Mr Murdoch has said that he considers himself Australian. He moved to Sydney with his wife, Sarah Murdoch, a former model and presenter on one of the Murdochs’ Australian networks, and their three children in 2021, though he reportedly still sometimes works to American hours. He is more blokeish than his brother, with an interest in rugby and rock-climbing. But he is less frugal than his father. Whereas Rupert Murdoch amused Hollywood executives in the 1980s with his Walmart shirts and habit of walking the four miles from his home to the Fox lot, Lachlan recently bought himself one of the most expensive homes in California, Chartwell Mansion, a ten-acre Bel Air pile.

He appears to share his father’s political flexibility. In the 1950s Mr Murdoch Sr had a bust of Lenin in his student rooms at Oxford. His British newspapers switched their support from the Conservatives to Labour on the eve of the latter’s victory in 1997. He initially despised Donald Trump, but swung behind him when MAGA’s momentum became clear. Lachlan seems similarly pragmatic. In 2023 his family foundation gave A$1m ($660,000) to Qtopia, a gay museum in Sydney (whose recent exhibitions include “Kylie Minogue & Queer Devotion”). In 2016 he had loo-roll printed with Mr Trump’s face in his home, according to a book by Michael Wolff, a journalist. But these days he sees Mr Trump as good for business. “Because of the election results, many advertisers have sort of rethought their positioning in this country and understand that the Fox News viewer really does represent middle America,” Mr Murdoch told investors in March.

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Editor: In the final paragraphs The Reader is given wan Oxbridger speculation: in sum chatter!

What now? With the rebel siblings bought out, Fox and News Corp will surely continue on their profitably conservative path. As long as the threat remained of a family rebellion, some analysts predicted the possible break-up of the firms. That no longer looks likely. The odds of News Corp spinning off REA, as some activist investors urge, also appear to have lengthened.

Instead, the settling of the family feud could open the door to more expansive moves. One might be to combine the two companies into one. Rupert Murdoch attempted to do this in 2022 but was opposed by shareholders, including James. Some analysts think that Lachlan may give it another go.

Another option would be for Fox to bulk up. Hollywood is ripe for consolidation, as smaller streaming services struggle to reach the scale needed for sustainable profits. John Malone of Warner Bros Discovery told the Financial Times last week that last year he had discussed with Rupert Murdoch the possibility of merging Fox and Warner. David Ellison, another Hollywood nepobaby, has recently taken over Paramount and seems to have ambitions to grow. With the succession question answered at last, the Murdoch empire may be ready for more dealmaking.

Political Observer.