Fox News’ Fate Revealed As Liberal Murdoch Children Fight For Control

At long last, the fate of Fox News’ parent company has reached a resolution following a bitter fight between the heirs of its founder, Rupert Murdoch.

Lachlan Murdoch, the Australian businessman’s eldest son, will retain executive governance over the network that made his father a household name and an icon of conservative media. The deal, worth a reported $3.3 billion, ensures that Fox will retain its center-right slant.

For years, the children of Rupert Murdoch had battled between attorneys over who would have editorial control of Fox News. Some, such as siblings Prue, Liz, and James, felt that giving Lachlan too much control would disenfranchise them from the family’s irrevocable trust.

Originally, Lachlan sought audacious changes to the family’s trust contract. That bid failed in court, but it brought both sides together to hammer out the terms of the deal reached on Monday.

Rupert Murdoch praised the succession plan, which he said will ensure the “protector of the conservative voice in the English-speaking world.”

The 94-year-old Murdoch redefined America’s media landscape with the launch of Fox News in 1996 after he parlayed the success of an Australian newspaper into a U.S. brand under the News Corp banner. He has been publicly supportive of his son’s bid to manage the channel’s affairs going forward.

Under the terms of the settlement, each of the remaining Murdoch children will receive $1.1 billion for their share in the media empire, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told the NYT. Shares in the existing family trust will be dissolved, and the amounts paid will equate to roughly 80% of the value of the stock at the closing of the market on Friday.

A new Murdoch family trust will be created and will include Lachlan and his two sisters, Grace and Chloe. It will maintain a controlling stake in the Murdoch media empire’s two main arms, Fox Corporation and News Corp.

Nothing about the conglomerate’s immediate leadership will change. Lachlan has been managing the company’s affairs for the past several years following his father’s decision to step down in November 2023.

As the outlet notes, the deal in some ways ensures that all the children received something that they wanted. Prue, Liz, and James — all of whom are far less conservative than Lachlan — were eager to break from a media company whose politics they often disagreed with.

They are also receiving considerably more for their shares than Lachlan had previously been willing to pay in past buyout offers.

It will fall on Lachlan to keep his center-right corporation relevant in the face of new media outlets springing up daily. Conservative media is now largely driven by podcasts, online news websites, and aggregators who are receiving mainstream media treatment in the White House press briefing room.