Lachlan, We Hardly Knew You

Lachlan Murdoch, oldest son of News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch quit this week to take his family back to Australia. Reports in the press indicate that Lachlan was pissed at his dad’s imperious style and meddling in the way Lachlan, 33, was running the company’s most profitable division, the 35 Fox television stations.
Too bad. Lachlan seems to have shown promise and he may have learned how to be an effective media executive in a few years, but he also learned to his dismay and disgust that politics runs thicker than blood. I don’t know the specific politics of News Corp., but I do know that the politics in big media companies where money and power converge is brutal. The young Murdoch, even with his birthright and the intent of his father to have his children eventually run his empire, was no match for one of the greatest political infighters and strategists of all time–Roger Ailes.
In the August 10 story in the Wall Street Journal, Julia Angwin and Joe Flint wrote, “But issues over the station group’s day-to-day management were a big source of conflict between Lachlan and his father, triggering the younger Murdoch’s departure, say people familiar with the situation. Specifically, Lachlan often found himself out of the loop, in part because of the close relationship between the station group’s CEO, Jack Abernethy, and Fox News chief, Roger Ailes, a close confidant of the elder Mr. Murdoch.”
In the next two paragraphs, Angwin and Flint write: “The vacancy created by Lachlan Murdoch’s departure could set the stage for a power struggle between Mr. Ailes and another high-profile News Corp. executive, Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin. As chief operating officer, overseeing the TV and film operations, Mr. Chernin would seem to be the natural candidate to take control of the station group. But Mr. Ailes’ success at building the Fox News Channel into the leading 24-hour news channel has made him a favorite with Rupert Murdoch. A spokesman for News Corp. declined to comment.
The company’s TV station group, one of the largest in the nation, has long been one of the company’s biggest profit centers. The stations account for roughly 10% of revenue and 30% of operating income at News Corp. Just as important, the group is strategically crucial as the main outlet for the Fox broadcast network. The stations are also useful for other businesses, such as Fox’s sister cable networks, that need on-air promotion.”
You can see Alies’s fingerprints all over this situation, just like you can see the equally Machiavellian politcal strategist Karl Rove’s fingerprints all over the outing of Valerie Plame. I’ll bet a month’s wages (I’m on vacation this month, so I’m earning nothing) that Alies wasn’t getting what he wanted from Lachlan in terms of caving in to Alies’s demands for more Fox News channel promotion and intergration of the station’s news product with the Fox News channel.
Plus, I’ll bet next month’s wages that Alies wanted new worlds to conquer now that he’s thrashed CNN and MSNBC. And because he came out of political consulting and politics, you know he craves more power. Afterall, when it comes to power in politics and the media, you are either gaining power or losing it–there is no standing still in the power grid. Therefore, Alies lusts for more power and he’ll get it from Murdoch who must be terrified that Ailes, his ideological soulmate, will go over to the competition and beat Fox’s brains out.
I predict that Chernin will do Murdoch’s bidding (which is why he is Rupert’s #2 and short-term heir apparent) and give the Fox Television Station group to Alies. That move will give Alies more power and keep him in the News Corp. family where he belongs.
Will News Corp. and Fox be better off with Lachlan gone and Alies running the TV station group? Of course. Lachlan may have been fairly smart, but he’s not nearly as smart or experienced in TV or corporate politics as Ailes is. So, Lachlan’s blood ties lost to Alies’s political ties and maneuvering, and the young Murdoch will probably be much happier away from his controlling father and the political infighting. He probably said to himself, wisely, “Who needs that crap when I’m going to be worth about $1 billion some day no matter where I work.”
Rupert was quoted as saying he hopes Lachlan will come back to News Corp. some day. Fat chance. Would you go back if you were in Lachlan’s position?