Lachlan’s win means his mates Down Under can breathe easily

In this Murdoch edition of On Background, the finale to the succession battle brings a muted sigh of relief at Holt Street. Also, a mapping out of the next-gen media moguls, and why Lachlan’s own empire continues to grow.

Relief for Lachie’s Australian mates

There was a collective sigh of relief for News Corp’s Australian businesses, more than anywhere else, when the prodigal son was crowned king on Tuesday.

Unlike the much healthier parts of the Murdoch empire (Fox News, REA and Dow Jones, which runs The Wall Street Journal), the legacy Australian assets are ailing.

News Corp Australia’s 2024 finances showed a net loss of $43.3 million, while Melbourne’s Herald Sun, The Courier Mail in Brisbane and Adelaide’s The Advertiser all lost subscribers across the 12 months to June.

But fear not. The tabloids have one thing going for them: proximity to Lachlan Murdoch, who continues to live in Australia, and reportedly “loves” the papers.

His father, Rupert Murdoch, has kept financially stressed assets on as long as they continue to offer influence. While that influence is waning, any major change such as pulling print remains unlikely as long as the 94-year-old is still alive.

A recent decision by Lachlan is telling of this. During a strategy session in search of cost savings in May last year, a proposal was put forward to shift the Darwin-based NT News to a digital-only edition.

This would be followed by News Corp’s other regional titles in Cairns, the Gold Coast, Townsville and Geelong. Lachlan put an end to that plan, On Background is told.

Yes, he secured the company – but at what point do shareholders and New York HQ begin to ask questions if the local losses continue?

Local favourites

In Sydney, Lachlan is a big backer of News Corp Australia boss Michael Miller, who has held on to his position despite four years of rumblings that Sky News boss Paul Whittaker is in for his job. Whatever anyone else thinks, only a man with the Murdoch name’s support matters.

Miller held an all-staff town hall meeting on Wednesday, but as you might have expected, there was no mention of the family drama, and no questions were allowed.

Lachlan also chats with Daily Telegraph editor Ben English “a lot”, or so we were told by English himself on a podcast last year. English is known to be his favoured editor, despite a growing dialogue between Lachlan and editor-in-chief of The Australian Michelle Gunn.

But perhaps the most relieved of them all was Andrew Bolt, now safe from his own axe, having threatened to quit News Corp last year if Lachlan’s brother, James, and co won out.

A quick reminder: “James could sack me if he did take over, but he wouldn’t need to. I wouldn’t be the only one who wouldn’t work for him,” Bolt said on Sky News last July.

“It’s a values thing. A freedom thing. I don’t know if he gets that.”

It’s always nice to see values winning.

The kids are all right

While Lachlan, or Lachie, as veteran News Corp editors call him, got the ending none of the Roys were afforded in the Succession finale, there’s no word yet whether he had to enforce the “eldest boy” trump card to get the deal over the line.

Now he’s landed the empire, he will already be thinking beyond 2050, when this new iteration of the family trust expires, and he himself is approaching 80.

It is tradition for Murdoch men to start out young in the family business. Lachlan first interned aged 18 at The Daily Mirror, James Murdoch was famously photographed by The Sydney Morning Herald asleep in the daily news conference at The Mirror as a teenager, while Rupert took hold of News Limited aged just 21 when his father died.

So after spending decades wresting control of the company from the grips of his siblings, it would be silly not to think at least one of his three kids will become the fourth-generation newshound.

Lachlan and Sarah’s middle child, Aidan, popped up in News Corp’s HQ last year, interning at free news site news.com.au, penning yarns under the byline Aidan Patrick.

Don’t rule out Aidan’s aunties, Chloe and Grace, Rupert Murdoch’s two daughters from his third marriage, to Wendi Deng. The pair sided with Lachlan this week, and now have an equal third share of the new “LGC” family trust, despite still having no say over the votes.

They may prove to be the most business-savvy of them all. Last year, they interned at Goldman Sachs in New York, with Chloe, the younger of the two in the technology, media and telecoms investment banking team. Lachlan’s fight with his siblings may not be over yet.

The golden boy with the Midas touch

Lachlan will need all the cash he can get as the picture remains somewhat murky over how he’s going to pay his siblings a grand total of $US3.3 billion ($5 billion). It started with a sell-down of valuable voting stock, and then a $US1 billion loan from J.P. Morgan, leaving Lachlan and Rupert to find the remaining money to finance the deal.

He can take solace in the fact his private radio company, Nova Entertainment, continues to wipe the floor with its commercial competitor, the Kyle & Jackie O-fronted ARN Media.

Nova trounced its rivals in the first half of the year, growing its revenue in the major cities by 10 per cent, while ARN slipped 16 per cent, according to agency data shared with On Background.

Maybe he could now bring Nova into the News Corp fold?

Pay-per-view or Paper view?

You might have rubbed your eyes if you logged into Foxtel’s Kayo last weekend to catch the opening round of AFL finals footy, and the final round of the NRL season. Instead, subscribers were served up an episode of new comedy show The Paper, a spin-off from the hit US version of The Office.

With subscribers flocking away from sister service Binge this year, is this an early sign new owners DAZN may want to have its sports and entertainment offerings under one roof?

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