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Rupert Murdoch stepping down as co-executive chairman of Fox

Murdoch will take on the role of chairman emeritus in November; his son Lachlan will succeed him in the role as sole executive chairman from that point onward.

Murdoch will take on the role of chairman emeritus in November; his son Lachlan will succeed him in the role as sole executive chairman from that point onward.

Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as the executive chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp, the current incarnations of the media company he founded seven decades ago.

The announcement was made in a press release distributed by Fox on Thursday, in which the company affirmed Murdoch, 92, will transition to the role of chairman emeritus in November.

Murdoch’s son, Lachlan Murdoch, will succeed his father to become sole chairman of News Corp, the print publishing arm of the media empire that oversees Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones, book publisher HarperCollins and various newspapers in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Lachlan Murdoch will also continue in his role as executive chairman and CEO of Fox.

“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,” Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement on Thursday. “We thank him for his vision, his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination, and the enduring legacy he leaves to the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted. We are grateful that he will serve as Chairman Emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies.”

Murdoch’s empire has its roots in the 1950s, when he took a local newspaper inherited from his father and built it into Australia’s first national newspaper. He later acquired a number of newspapers in the United Kingdom, including the controversial “News of the World” tabloid, and expanded into the United States through his purchase of the New York Post.

In the 1980s, he became an American citizen in order to satisfy regulatory requirements concerning his then-pending application to own broadcast licenses associated with his budding Fox network, which was successfully built into a rival “fourth network” that took on ABC, CBS and NBC with its edgier programming and premium live sports.

His influence on American politics became clear with the launch of the Fox News channel in 1996, a network that continues to offer a right-of-center perspective on the top current and political events. Fox News quickly became the highest-rated cable news channel in the country, and spawned the Fox Business Network in 2007.

Overseas, Murdoch made his mark on broadcasting with the launch of the Sky satellite television service in the United Kingdom and the establishment of the country’s first 24-hour news channel, Sky News. Both are now owned by Comcast.

In Australia, Murdoch built out his media company with the launch of Foxtel, a cable and satellite television service operated as a joint venture with Telstra since the 1990s.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys is an award-winning journalist with more than 10 years of experience covering the business of television and radio broadcasting, streaming services and the overall media industry. In addition to his work as publisher of The Desk, Matthew contributes regularly to StreamTV Insider and KnowTechie, and has worked for several well-known news organizations, including Thomson Reuters, McNaughton Newspapers, Grasswire, Comstock's magazine, KTXL-TV and KGO-TV. Matthew is a member of IRE, a trade organization for investigative reporters and editors, and is based in Northern California.

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