Murdoch’s grip on power put to the test in Fox upheaval
THE EIGHTH floor at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan is where 21st Century Fox Inc.’s top executives sit, which is why it’s all the more significant that Rupert Murdoch is spending so much time six floors below.
The 86-year- old media mogul moved to the second floor and into the office vacated when Fox News chief Roger Ailes was ousted last July.
Last week, Murdoch gathered staff to reveal plans for adding reporters and physically making over the newsroom, spending millions to install an open floor plan with giant data screens and a TV studio. In a statement, Murdoch described the investment in personal terms, calling it “a sign of my unwavering confidence” in Fox News.
His dedication to the project is a reminder that Murdoch is still leaving his mark on Fox even while his sons are upstairs managing his media empire. Murdoch promoted Lachlan and James two years ago to top roles, and they have worked in concert with their father on key personnel changes – evidence that some transfer of power is happening, slowly but surely, at 21st Century Fox.
The next few months will determine whether that change in control is happening quickly enough at Fox, the US$ 50 billion ( RM225 billion) media giant Murdoch built from a single newspaper in Australia. US federal investigators are examining Fox’s legal settlements of sexual-harassment allegations.
Executives are trying to reverse declines in ad sales, nonsports TV ratings and box office revenue. And UK regulators are evaluating the Murdochs’ fitness as media owners as part of a review of Fox’s US$ 15 billion takeover of Sky – putting the elder Murdoch’s management of Fox News front and centre.
Having Murdoch run Fox News “seems counterproductive and probably not helpful in sending messages about changes in culture,” Claire Enders, founder of media research firm Enders Analysis, said in an interview.
So far, the Murdochs’ powersharing structure has helped Fox weather a tumultuous period, though its stock hasn’t kept up with rivals’ gains.
Since July 6, when a lawsuit filed by former anchor Gretchen Carlson set the harassment scandal in motion, 21st Century Fox shares have gained 1.4 per cent, compared with a 13 per cent increase for the S& P 500 Media Index.
But it would be better for Murdoch to gracefully step back to a role like Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates did, becoming a board member and adviser, said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management.
Murdoch is “way too brilliant” to lose, “but he needs to give some clear sailing to the next generation to be the standard bearers now of the enterprise,” he said.
Otherwise, he said, Murdoch risks joining the long list of corporate monarchs who held onto the throne too long and made mistakes that hurt their empires, from William Randolph Hearst to Sumner Redstone. The scandal at Fox News is the second major management crisis Murdoch has faced over the last decade, following the phonehacking scandal that in 2011 derailed his first attempt to buy Sky.
Fox declined to make the Murdochs available for comment on succession and long-term strategy. Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, competes with Fox News in providing news and information.
Public companies like Fox or Facebook, whose founders have voting control, are more tolerant of risk, which can be an advantage, Martin Sorrell, chief executive officer of WPP, said in a statement with the advertising giant’s most recent annual report.
“I find him as engaged as ever,” Sorrell, who has known Murdoch for over 30 years, said in an interview. “He is a founder and he has a passion for the business that will continue until his dying day.”
Executives who work closely with Murdoch describe a man of boundless energy and curiosity who they say shows no signs of dialing back. Robert Thomson, CEO of Murdoch’s publishing company News Corp., described a trip with Murdoch in January to Nashville, Tennessee, to see the HarperCollins Christian Publishing unit.
Your average octogenarian media baron might not be enthused about such a trip, but Murdoch was full of questions about the tiny division.
The billionaire, who spends much of his time in New York and Southern California, considered the visit a rare opportunity to get insight into trends in middle America – an audience he aims to reach with other parts of his entertainment and news businesses.
“He uses his experience from one company to inform elements about another,” said Thomson, who credits Murdoch for cultivating his career and that of other successful media executives such as Peter Rice, head of Fox’s Networks, and Stacey Snider, its new film studio chief.
Murdoch’s public profile had been diminishing until last year. He last appeared on an earnings conference call in August 2014. The following year, he handed over leadership of 21st Century Fox to James and Lachlan, replacing his long partnership with Chase Carey, who had spent a decade as Fox’s chief operating officer.
Last year, Murdoch gave up weighing in on politics via his Twitter account as he went off on honeymoon with his new wife, model Jerry Hall.
Then last July, the Murdochs decided Rupert would replace Ailes as CEO of the most-watched news network, the jewel in Fox’s crown, assuaging fears that Fox News might lose the distinctive conservative tone that has made it so popular.
Ailes, who died last week at 77, was brought down by allegations by Carlson and other women that he retaliated against them for refusing his sexual advances.
Fox has run up US$ 45 million so far on legal settlements and provisions related to Ailes’s departure. — WP-Bloomberg
I find him as engaged as ever. He is a founder and he has a passion for the business that will continue until his dying day. Martin Sorrell, chief executive officer of WPP