Rupert retires, and Lachlan is in charge
Will the new boss just manage Fox News? Or truly lead it?
Lachlan Murdoch now has the reins, but will he use them?
Rupert Murdoch yesterday dropped a bombshell we all knew was coming: he’s retiring. For a year, he’d been heading Fox News from his Montana ranch, gradually ceding more power to his son Lachlan. Now, at age 92, he's made it official, and Lachlan is now chairman of News Corp.
For Fox fans, Lachlan brings a mixed bag
First, he isn’t liberal, despite what you may hear. His brother James for years was a contender to run a news channel he apparently despised. Rumors floated for years that James wanted to reshape Fox News into a "responsible" conservative network. We can all read between those lines.
Lachlan, on the other hand, appears to be both conservative and someone who actually likes Fox News. Whether he wrote it or not, anyone delivering this outstanding speech about censorship and culture is pretty good in my book.
Despite this, in Fox News meetings, he's usually silent. That makes it hard to gauge how bright he is, but I can guarantee that he’s substantially sharper than his dimwitted “Succession” character makes him out to be.
The real question isn’t whether he’s equipped to run Fox. He is. But will he be visionary enough to actually lead it? Or will he simply kick back and enjoy the spoils of a billion-dollar media empire?
The external challenges
Media pundits won't stop talking about the upcoming Smartmatic and pension fund lawsuits facing the company. Those are speed bumps, not existential threats. Even if Fox has to part with some cash, it’ll be raking in profits for a foreseeable future.
Lachlan’s bigger challenge is death. Not his or his father’s, but the demise of the channel’s aging audience. The future? Gen-Z, with their digital demands, aren't sitting around waiting for the six o'clock news on a television set. They won’t be filling their parents' shoes as cable TV subscribers. Over the next decade, cable news channels will need to thrive online, or die themselves.
And the competition isn't sleeping. Channels like NewsNation and the MAGA-cheering NewsMax are small, but slowly creeping up. Every month brings more conservative voices online, competing for the Fox audience, including their former star, Tucker Carlson.
The channel has lost some of its conservative fans, and Trump won’t hesitate to capitalize on that discord. Navigating past the rocks through the 2024 election, and beyond, won’t be simple.
The battle within
The real test for Lachlan won’t come from outside, but from deep within himself.
He’s been trained in his father’s media empire for years, learning from Rupert, gathering experience and contacts. His father gave him every advantage, except disadvantage, and he may lack that burning desire to succeed.
What’s “success” for Lachlan? Legacy? Rupert built a few newspapers into a worldwide media behemoth. Roger Ailes built Fox itself from nothing into the most successful and influential news outlet in modern American history. It changed the course of our nation. How could Lachlan possibly outshine those men?
Could success be money? Lachlan is worth about $3 billion, and his “second” home is a $150 million Los Angeles mansion with 11 bedrooms. He’s tan, good looking, loves boating and he and his former-model wife live a life at a level difficult to even understand. If he pockets another couple billion dollars, will it really affect his lifestyle?
His worst path would be to minimally involve himself, and for the past few years at Fox, he’s done exactly that. He still primarily lives halfway around the world in Australia, and can be hard to find for quick decisions. A yacht race here, an unreachable time there. Writer Michael Wolff points out Lachlan’s “... disengagement from the media business and even Fox News itself.”
Remember Roger Ailes? He didn’t just steer the ship. He was the ship.
To the left of his desk were giant screens displaying Fox and its rivals. Nothing escaped his attention, something I witnessed many times.
If CNN was first on a breaking news story, or if lighting was bad or if an anchor’s clothes looked wrong, Roger would pause our meeting and pick up a phone to fix it. Downstairs in the control room, there was a special phone. When it rang, directors knew who was on the line. Roger wasn’t just overseeing; he was entrenched.
The Murdochs haven’t given CEO Suzanne Scott “Ailes-level” authority. With a hands-off chairman, that could be a recipe for disaster.
Lachlan Murdoch has been groomed for the job, and has all the tools. But with the ever-changing media landscape and an audience that's drifting towards newer horizons, will he rise to the occasion? Or will he rest on the laurels of the Murdoch dynasty?
– Ken
Isn't it a fact that Roger Ailes and Lachlan Murdoch were rivals? Sometimes when Fox News strays far from the path pioneered by Ailes, I wish that whatever remains of the Ailes faction would be restored to power. Am I correct that's even more unlikely now with Lachlan in charge?
And whose bright idea was it to put Paul Ryan on the Fox board? The anti-Trump vein is pumping hard throughout the Murdoch empire, especially on WSJ's editorial team and with Cavuto, Baier, etc. on FNC. Is Lachlan their friend at the top?
Another aging clot in the NewsCorp bloodstream is its remnant of old time religion. It thumps loudly when the WSJ Editorial Board or certain FNC personalities reference the abortion issue, bringing not "life" but certain and imminent electoral death to GOP recruitment of young voters. Will the Murdoch empire continue to lean toward the Catholic religious right, post-succession? Can secular conservatism now finally get as much play as those wearing a cross on-air, or that guy commanding viewers to "go to Church" just before their own best Sunday show begins?
Lachlan was mentioned by Tucker Carlson often when he talked about his own role on the company and the efforts by enemies and rivals to remove him. The references were always favorable, making it sound, to me at least, that Tucker had an ally in Lachlan, one reason it was a shock for me, and I am sure for many people with my mindset, when Tucker was suddenly removed, such a betrayal I have not turned on the channel since. I wonder whether Lachlan will care enough about his alienated audience to make any moves to attract us back again, or whether we truly, as it seemed at the time of Tucker’s removal, mean nothing to the billionaire family? There are millions of us, disaffected and still angry.