Rupert Murdoch prepares to hand over his media empire
Rupert Murdoch se prépare à léguer son empire médiatique
Le magnat de la presse prend sa retraite.
Rupert Murdoch est le très controversé PDG d'un empire médiatique surpuissant. Mais il est surtout connu comme le patron de la chaine Fox News, dont le succès est étroitement lié à celui de Donald Trump. A 90 ans, il est l'heure pour Murdoch de prendre sa retraite : son empire, tout comme le trumpisme, se relèvera-t-il des controverses de ces derniers mois ?
Birthday parties in pandemics are dreary, even for billionaires. But Rupert Murdoch’s 90th, which he celebrated on March 11th, should at least have been less stressful than his 80th. A decade on from the near-collapse of his empire, things are going rather better for the Australian-born tycoon. Fox News is America’s most popular (if also its most despised) cable channel. And in a coup last month, Mr Murdoch forced tech giants to pay for linking to his content. “He has the money. He has huge amounts of political power. He has it all,” says Claire Enders, a veteran media-watcher.
2. As he prepares to pass it all on, the outlook is clouding over. The pandemic has speeded the decade-long decline of American cable tv. Last year cable subscriptions fell by 7.3%, to levels not seen in nearly 30
years. Mr Murdoch is still the force that holds together a formidable commercial and political project. It may not stay intact without him.
FOX NEWS
3. Fox News, where Fox made about 80% of its money last year, has problems of a different sort. Its close relationship with Donald Trump’s White House generated record ratings, but alienated advertisers and some investors. “Any company you hold, you want to see behave ethically,” says one large shareholder. Fox is “in that grey area right now. It’s defensible, but it’s far less defensible than it was.” Smartmatic, an election-software company, is suing the company for $2.7bn for airing ludicrous claims that it rigged the presidential election. 4. Fox has reined in its support for Mr Trump, only to see viewers depart for right-wing upstarts like Newsmax and One America News. Fox News remains the most-watched cable channel in primetime. But viewership in February was down by 30%, year on year, even as that of its rivals, CNN and MSNBC, rose by 61% and 23%, respectively.
5. One former Fox executive observes that, like Mr Trump’s Republican Party, Fox News was trapped into “super-serving” an ultraconservative minority of its audience. Now it risks losing it, without attracting less kooky viewers.
6. Like Fox, the newspapers have had to deal with a global shift of advertising online. Ten years ago the Murdoch companies were collectively the world’s third-largest seller of ad. Now they are outside the top ten. But the newspapers are further along the digital transition than Fox is. Online subscriptions account for three-quarters of the total at the Wall Street Journal; even the New York Post, a perennially loss-making tabloid, reported a modest profit in the last quarter of 2020.
7. Some see a case for breaking up Fox. Mr Nathanson has argued that the firm should sell its broadcast- tv assets and sports channels, which the market seems to undervalue. Perhaps even Fox News could be spun off, if a buyer could be found: the brand is so controversial that it is all but unsellable, Ms Enders believes. A full leveraged buy-out of Fox could generate an annualised return on investment of roughly 25% over five years, calculates Morgan Stanley, an investment bank.
8. The biggest impediment to restructuring either firm’s portfolio may be Mr Murdoch himself. When power is eventually handed down, “a break-up story will gain momentum,” believes Brian Han of Morningstar, a broker. Will the next generation be willing to carve the empire up? And which of them will call the shots?
THE SON WOT WON IT
9. Lachlan [Murdoch] is already installed as chief executive of Fox and co-chairman of News Corp. Lachlan has “stars in his eyes” and wants to build the family empire back up through acquisitions, believes one disapproving shareholder.
10. Whatever he wants, Lachlan may not get his way. On Rupert’s death, control of the family trust will pass to his four eldest children. James, who resigned from the board of News Corp last year and now has little to do with his father and brother, has made clear his disapproval of the companies’ right-wing editorial line and does not seem attached to the legacy businesses. Elisabeth has warned of the dangers of “profit without purpose” in the media. With their elder half-sister Prudence, who keeps a lower profile, they could alter the course of both businesses.
11. If the future of the firms is determined not just by commercial logic but by family politics, that would be fitting. The assets in play are political as much as they are economic. The purpose of the Murdoch empire has always been to wield power as well as to make money. “What is Fox News for?” asks a former executive. “Fomenting insurrection.” Both Fox and News Corp may yet face one themselves.