Rupert Murdoch has resigned from his position as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corporation, capping a career spanning more than seven decades during which he built a media empire that stretched from Australia to the United States.

The firms said on Thursday that Lachlan Murdoch, his son, will continue to serve as chairman and CEO of Fox while serving as the sole chairman of News Corp. Lachlan’s position as the head of the media company is cemented by the change, putting the Murdoch family’s succession issues to rest.

Lachlan assumes control of the Murdoch business while the media sector faces numerous difficulties, such as the loss in traditional television viewership and news organisations’ legal battles with digital firms over purported copyright theft in the era of artificial intelligence.

Murdoch wrote in a note to his colleagues on Thursday: “Our companies are in robust health, as am I.”

Earlier this year, Murdoch, 92, abandoned a plan to combine Fox and News Corp in order to unify his media empire after many influential shareholders objected on the grounds that the plan would not maximise the company’s worth.

Murdoch, who owns nearly all of the stock in both businesses, will be made chairman emeritus of both.

The executive shift takes place in the middle of November, right before Fox and News Corp.’s annual shareholder meeting.

Fox News is still the top cable news network in the United States, and it has a significant impact on American politics, especially among Republicans who value Fox’s audience’s conservative leanings.

Fox avoided a trial where Murdoch, Lachlan, and Fox executives and hosts were scheduled to testify by agreeing to a $787.5 million settlement in a defamation case with Dominion Voting Systems earlier this year.

Fox would have come under fire during the trial for its promotion of fictitious allegations of vote manipulation in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The compensation, according to legal experts, was the highest ever reached by an American media firm.

In addition to shareholder lawsuits accusing Fox Corp officers and directors of failing in their duties by allowing the business to become bogged down in defamation claims, Fox still faces a lawsuit from voting technology company Smartmatic, which filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox in 2021 over identical accusations.

“Many of his enterprises still produce a lot of important news which helps keep the world informed in ways that might not have occurred were it not for his leadership,” said Brian Wieser, media analyst at advisory firm Madison & Wall.

“But it’s impossible to ignore the other side of that, where Fox News amplified toxicity in the US political environment, and other properties similarly impacted other territories.”

Following the announcement of Murdoch’s resignation, Fox stock ended the day 3.2% higher. Shares of News Corp rose 1.3%.

Murdoch, who has six children, has long hoped that his offspring will one day rule the business. Before Twenty-First Century Fox decided to sell its film and television assets to Walt Disney Co for $71.3 billion, a deal that finalised in 2019, his son James served as the company’s CEO.

James then invested the deal’s revenues in Lupa Systems, a private investment company. Lachlan was chosen as the new Fox Corporation’s CEO.

When Murdoch passed away, his other children might put Lachlan’s authority in jeopardy. Murdoch owns approximately 40% of the voting shares of each of News Corp and Fox Corp through a family trust with headquarters in Reno, Nevada. Additionally, he owns a minor number of non-trust shares of the companies.

Lachlan, James, Elisabeth, and Prudence, each of Murdoch’s four children from his first two marriages, have an interest in the trust. Chloe and Grace, his youngest daughters from his third marriage to Wendi Deng, are not entitled to vote in the trust.

Even though Lachlan Murdoch now oversees Fox Corp. and News Corp., the transfer of Murdoch’s voting shares in News Corp. and Fox Corp. to his four adult children could result in a situation where three of the children could outvote a fourth, thereby igniting a conflict over the future of the businesses.

With voting Class B shares and non-voting Class A shares, Fox and News Corp. have a dual share structure. Both classes of shares are included in the Fox and News Corp. shares that Murdoch’s children own through the trust.

Murdoch has been plagued by health worries in recent years. According to many workers, he fell aboard his son Lachlan’s yacht in 2018 and seriously hurt his back.

Employees claim that during the past year, Murdoch has begun to reappear at Fox and News Corp headquarters in London and New York.

“It’s the end of the founder-mogul era,” said former News Corp executive Jonathan Miller, who worked alongside the elder Murdoch.

According to Miller, a group of media moguls that included Sumner Redstone, Ted Turner, and John Malone helped to define the modern business. Founders have now handed the torch to executives who have risen through the ranks.

(Adapted from Reuters.com)