Elisabeth Murdoch is smart, experienced and has built media businesses outside of her family’s direct interests.
She has also worked alongside her father, Rupert Murdoch, across various aspects of his media empire.
She founded and built the successful production company Shine, and later Sister, where she currently serves as the Executive Chair of the production company responsible for a number of successful series including The Split and Chernobyl. She has previously purchased and run NBC-affiliated television stations, and served on multiple boards.
True, the last name and deep family connections have certainly helped.
At one point, she was the bookmakers’ favourite for becoming the Director General of the BBC, a rumour that she dismissed at the time of the speculative stories, back in February 2020.
But the odds of her leading the BBC seemed higher than the odds of her ever being named as the successor of the Murdoch empire, including Fox and News Corp.
Instead, as Rupert Murdoch announced his retirement at the age of 92 late last week, he revealed Lachlan Murdoch would continue on as the chief executive and chair of Fox Corp while also taking over as Chair of News Corporation.
Would Elisabeth have even wanted to be her father’s successor? Perhaps not, and in 2012 she declared she had “absolutely no ambition for that top job”. Are there other and more capable people who could lead the empire better than any of the Murdoch kids? Almost certainly, yes. But is Elisabeth just as, if not more, capable than her two brothers, who have long been in a tussle to takeover from their father? As many commentators say, and Elisabeth’s own record and experience shows, absolutely.
But Elisabeth never seemed a likely contender to take the helm of a business built by a father of a very different era, despite being spotted with Rupert and Elon Musk at the Super Bowl earlier this year, which ignited some speculation about whether or not she could still be in the running.
Granted, Elisabeth made a decision to leave the Murdoch empire to do her own thing, and has not worked for a Murdoch-related company for a number of years.
However, her early career was formed running a number of different Murdoch businesses, including as general manager of broadcasting at BSkyB in the UK, at the age of just 27, and going on to lead all programming at the network within a year. She sold her first production company to News Corporation for US$663 million in 2011, which saw her re-enter the family fold for a period, only to exit again three years later.
Rupert Murdoch has six children, four of them daughters, including Chloe, Grace and Elisabeth Murdoch, and his first child Prudence MacLeod. It’s often assumed that only two of the six have been in real contention to takeover his empire – James and Lachlan Murdoch. The two brothers share ideological differences, but also have plenty of unique and individual weaknesses. Lachlan is more in check with his father, while James stepped away from the News Corp board altogether in 2021 citing “disagreements over certain editorial content.”
Author Michael Wolff, who has written extensively on the Murdochs following significant access to the family, told ABC Radio National this morning that Elisabeth would have been one of the better choices in this particular succession drama, describing the decision between James and Lachlan as one between a “bad choice and a bad choice”.
Asked then if Elisabeth was “too much of a woman” to have been considered, Wolff responded that Murdoch is, “old fashioned”.
“I once asked him why he had no women on his board of directors, and he said, and I quote, ‘because they talk too much’,” Wolff said today. The author also shared these revelations in a 2008 published biography, which followed 50 hours of interviews with Murdoch. The first woman on the board of New Corporation was Natalie Bancroft, appointed in 2007 following the acquisition of The Wall Street Journal.
So what next? Elisabeth Murdoch still stands to inherit her share of the family media empire, but for now looks set to build media businesses elsewhere.
As for Lachlan Murdoch, the weekend’s shakeup on the Fox board of directors may explain some of his intentions ahead. The board’s sole woman, Anne Dias, is leaving, having previously shared concerns about Fox News’ Trump coverage in the lead up to the January 6 2021 insurrection. She finishes her term in November, alongside philanthropist and business executive Jacques Nasser. Dias had urged Murdoch to “take a stance” following the Capitol Hill riot.
Set to replace the two directors are tech CEO Peggy Johnson – meaning the board remains overwhelmingly male-dominated but at least not male only — and former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
As Lachlan Murdoch said on welcoming Johnson and Abbott, “They bring skills, experience and perspectives that will contribute to the Board and benefit Fox.”
What would Elisabeth Murdoch bring?