Lachlan Murdoch started his leadership training at News Corp more than three decades ago, but exactly how he will steer the media empire remains largely unknown after the decision by his father to step aside.
There have been times when Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son and nominated successor has forged his own path in business – and the record is patchy.
The most spectacular failure was Lachlan’s investment in the upstart junior telco One.Tel in 1999, which he pursued alongside Australia’s other media scion, James Packer.
The investment quickly turned sour, with the telco’s billing system proving inadequate and expansion flawed, leading to the company’s collapse.
His foray into the Ten Network in 2010, again with Packer and another billionaire, Bruce Gordon, proved unsuccessful after they were unable to turn around the third-rating network. It too was placed into administration, eventually bought by the US network CBS.
But Lachlan’s biggest commercial success, a 2000-era deal to invest in real estate agent John McGrath’s fledgling online property site Realestate.com.au, would go on to become a huge profit-driver for his father’s empire.
It was small change for News Corp, but over the next two decades its majority stake in the platform’s parent company would become an important business, sitting alongside investments in US portals including Realtor.com.
Along with the digital property assets, Lachlan is known to favour Sky News Australia and Foxtel and does not embrace newspapers with the same affection as his father.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean a radical overhaul of the old print assets is on the cards.
In Australia, the newspaper stable includes the Australian, the Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun, the Courier Mail and the Advertiser, among others.
Veteran media analyst Peter Cox, who first met Rupert Murdoch in the 80s, said News Corp’s newspaper ownership was as much about influence as it was about profits.
“Lachlan has never had the love for newspapers as Rupert has, but they share the love for power,” said Cox.
“Whatever way you look at it, they see newspapers as having influence around the world.”
While Rupert’s decision to hand the keys of the empire, including the role of chairman of both News Corp and Fox Corp, to his eldest son ends speculation over his desired plan for succession, a future dispute between the Murdoch heirs could prompt a rethink of the newspaper assets.
Under a trust, four Murdoch children share jointly in the family stake. James has strongly criticised his family’s news outlets for downplaying the impact of climate change.
In the meantime, Rupert, 92, will become chairman emeritus of the two corporations, signalling a diminished but ongoing role in the companies.
News Corp’s newspaper portfolio contains many overseas titles, such as the Sun and the Times in London and the New York Post, giving it a dominant global say in the news cycle.
But in terms of profit, the newspaper division is the smallest earnings driver of News Corp’s five divisions.
It lags behind the dominant digital real estate businesses as well as News Corp’s HarperCollins-led book publishing unit and business audience-focused Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal.
One analyst told Guardian Australia that part of the financial success of the Wall Street Journal was that it had a dedicated readership and generated most of its revenue from online subscriptions and digital advertising.
“Other News Corp newspaper titles are well behind the Journal in that transition,” the analyst said.
More recently, Lachlan oversaw the transition of Fox and Sky News content on to digital platforms.
They still run as traditional 24-hour channels, but increasingly revenue is being generated by cutting up programs into YouTube snippets, which can be shared on social media.
This in part explains the lurch toward programming that appeals to rightwing audiences, quickly accumulating a large number of views.
The News Corp-owned Foxtel is also in transition, as it tries to replace revenue from the once lucrative pay television service with lower-fee streaming services Kayo and Binge.
Cox said News Corp had missed its opportunity to sell Foxtel and its newspaper titles at their prime.
“The best windows of opportunity have passed on those, but that’s not to say Lachlan still can’t do it.
“But he needs to have the newspapers to have the influence he wants.”
