Murdoch retiring from media empire after 70+ years Rupert Murdoch, the US global media magnate, is stepping down at 92 from the business empire he started expanding in his native Australia at the age of 21, it was announced on Thursday. In a note to staff first reported in the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, he wrote: “For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles.” After decades of wrangling and the smash-hit television drama series Succession that appeared to mirror all too closely the power struggles of the Murdoch business clan, one of the most powerful media and, by extension, political figures of the 20th and 21st centuries is handing over the keys to his eldest son Lachlan. Murdoch’s publicly-traded company News Corp, headquartered in New York, owns hundreds of local, national and international news outlets. In the US the company owns the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, a conservative-leaning tabloid. Also book publisher HarperCollins. In the UK he owns the dailies The Sun and The Times and owned the now-defunct News of the World weekly scandal sheet. He is famous/infamous for union-busting in the 1980s and influence over and secret deal-making with Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher. In Australia, News Corp owns The Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun, and The Australian. In the television business, News Corp also owns the US’s right-wing channel Fox News, through the Fox Corporation, and, down under, Sky News Australia. Murdoch was the owner of Britain’s Sky News until 2018 and the film company now called 21st Century Fox until 2019. Forbes estimates Rupert Murdoch enjoys a net worth of US $21.7bn. Closing Summary Here is a wrap up of the day’s key events and reactions following Rupert Murdoch’s announcement of his resignation from Fox and News Corp: Fox said in an announcement on Thursday that Murdoch would become chairman emeritus of both companies. Murdoch vowed to remain engaged at Fox, saying, “I will be involved every day in the contest of ideas.” His older son, Lachlan, 52, will become News Corp chairman and continue as chief executive officer of Fox Corp. “On behalf of the Fox and News Corp boards of directors, leadership teams, and all the shareholders who have benefited from his hard work, I congratulate my father on his remarkable 70-year career,” he said. Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of the media watchdog Media Matters for America, called Murdoch’s legacy “one of deceit.” Carusone went on to warn Lachlan Murdoch’s succession will likely intensify misconduct and misinformation, saying, “Lachlan certainly is a less competent leader than his father, but his worldview is considerably more brutal.” In an interview with LBC presenter Andrew Marr, UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt called Rupert Murdoch a “formidable operator” an “one of the giants of his era.” Reflecting on Murdoch’s resignation, Hunt said: “He is someone, who love him or loathe him, had a defining influence on all of our lives over the last half century.” British television host Piers Morgan hailed Rupert Murdoch’s media legacy following his resignation announcement. “It’s been a privilege to work for him on and off for the past 30 years, and an ongoing masterclass in journalism & business,” Morgan said. The Lincoln Project, an anti-Donald Trump Republican organization responded to Rupert Murdoch’s resignation by saying, “Don’t be fooled by this news.” “Rupert & Fox’s legacy will forever be putting in Trump in the White House & poisoning millions of minds across America,” it added. Jeremy Corbyn, the former Leader of the Opposition and former Leader of the Labour Party, said that Rupert Murdoch’s empire “has poisoned global democracy and spread disinformation on a mass scale.” “It’s time to break up monopolies and build a truly free media — one that exposes the truth, challenges the powerful and amplifies local voices building a better world,” he said. The Hacked Off Campaign, which was established in 2011 in response to the phone hacking revelations involving the now defunct Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World newspaper, also responded to Murdoch’s decision. “Changing the man at the head of News Corp won’t make a difference – the problems in the Murdoch press and other parts of the national newspaper industry are systemic and can only be resolved with independent regulation,” it said. That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along. The Guardian’s Richard Luscombe offers his analysis on the significance of Rupert Murdoch’s resignation amid a politically tumultous moment for Fox News and the American media landscape: The resignation of Rupert Murdoch comes amid a period of unprecedented turmoil at his embattled Fox News empire, and leaves a number of questions hanging over the future of the nation’s most-watched rightwing network. Exclusive reporting by the Guardian this week revealed that Murdoch expected a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over 2020 election lies would cost Fox News $50m. It was settled for an eye-popping $797.5m, the media mogul reportedly left “frothing at the mouth” in anger at Donald Trump, whose conspiracy theories over the 2020 election Fox personalities repeatedly amplified. Murdoch, according to Michael Wolff, author of the new book The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty, often wished for the former president’s death. Now, Murdoch is bailing out as other, perhaps more costly lawsuits are still pending, including a $2.7bn damages claim from Smartmatic, another voting machine manufacturer savaged by Fox’s on-air talent in similar fashion to Dominion. British-American broadcaster Mehdi Hassan has criticized Rupert Murdoch’s legacy in a tweet following Murdoch’s resignation announcement. “As Rupert Murdoch announces his ‘retirement’, a reminder that some of the worst things we have had to experience in recent years - the Iraq war, the rise of Trump, the Big Election Lie - are all thanks to him and to Fox.” The Hacked Off Campaign, which was established in 2011 in response to the phone hacking revelations involving the now defunct Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World newspaper, has issued its response to Murdoch’s resignation, saying: “Rupert Murdoch presided over a company where widespread illegality occurred and was subsequently covered up. Every day, News UK’s unregulated newspaper publishers intrude on the lives of ordinary people and publish falsities with impunity. But changing the man at the head of News Corp won’t make a difference – the problems in the Murdoch press and other parts of the national newspaper industry are systemic and can only be resolved with independent regulation.” Jeremy Corbyn, the former Leader of the Opposition and former Leader of the Labour Party, said that Rupert Murdoch’s empire “has poisoned global democracy and spread disinformation on a mass scale.” “It’s time to break up monopolies and build a truly free media — one that exposes the truth, challenges the powerful and amplifies local voices building a better world,” he added. Here are a few takeaways from Michael Wolff’s news book on the Murdoch empire, Fox and US politics, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports: Murdoch did not expect Dominion to prove so costly: Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News for $1.6bn, over the broadcast of Donald Trump’s lies about voter fraud in 2020. According to Wolff, in winter 2022, an irate Rupert Murdoch told friends of his then wife, Jerry Hall: “This lawsuit could cost us fifty million dollars.” When the suit was settled, in April, it cost Fox a whopping $787.5m. Murdoch thought Ron DeSantis would beat Trump: Murdoch reportedly predicted the Florida governor would beat Trump for the Republican nomination next year, siphoning off evangelical voters because “it was going to come out about the abortions Trump had paid for”. Murdoch wishes Trump dead…: “Trump’s death became a Murdoch theme,” Wolff writes, reporting the mogul saying: “‘We would all be better off …?’ ‘This would all be solved if …’ ‘How could he still be alive, how could he?’ ‘Have you seen him? Have you seen what he looks like? What he eats?’” The Lincoln Project, an anti-Donald Trump Republican organization responded to Rupert Murdoch’s resignation by saying, “Don’t be fooled by this news.” “Rupert Murdoch may have stepped down at @FoxNews, but Fox remains an extremist MAGA propaganda factory. Rupert & Fox’s legacy will forever be putting in Trump in the White House & poisoning millions of minds across America,” it said. British television host Piers Morgan hailed Rupert Murdoch’s media legacy following the mogul’s announcement that he will be stepping down from his media empire. On Thursday, Morgan wrote: “Rupert Murdoch has been a bold, brilliant, visionary leader whose audacity & tenacity built a magnificently successful global media empire. It’s been a privilege to work for him on and off for the past 30 years, and an ongoing masterclass in journalism & business. Thanks Boss!” UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt says Murdoch "one of the giants of his era" In an interview with LBC presenter Andrew Marr, UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt called Rupert Murdoch a “formidable operator” an “one of the giants of his era.” Reflecting on Murdoch’s resignation, Hunt said: “He is someone, who love him or loathe him, had a defining influence on all of our lives over the last half century. “His support for Margaret Thatcher in the Wapping dispute, was an extremely important moment in her leadership and she benefited enormously from his support,” Hunt said, referring to the lengthy failed strike by London print workers in 1986. “I think I had moments of feeling different emotions when it came to Rupert Murdoch, if I’m completely honest…but as he’s stepping down today, I will just say simply this, I do have enormous respect for someone who was one of the giants of his era,” Hunt said. Here is a Guardian piece from 1968 about Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of the now-defunct News of the World newspaper: The Guardian’s Jason Rodrigues writes: The Oxford educated Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch first came to the attention of the UK public in the late 1960s, with his bold bid to buy the News of the World under the nose of Robert Maxwell, another media proprietor. Still in his 30s, Murdoch made no secret of his ambition to acquire the British Sunday tabloid, that was founded in 1843, and use it as a stepping to stone toward expansion in all areas of communication, a news report in the Guardian, in December 1968, quoted him as saying: “we will manage the printing and paper interests as efficiently as possible, but I would expect the expansion to be in the fields of publishing and communication [television].” The News of the World passed into the hands of Rupert Murdoch’s News Ltd. in 1969, after a year-long struggle with Robert Maxwell’s Pergamon Press. His ownership led to a significant shift in the paper’s content, with more emphasis on crime, sex, scandal, and human interest stories, extensive sports reporting, and occasionally outspokenly conservative editorialising.