Just a year after The Monthly’s Paola Totaro was writing about Rupert Murdoch “dangling the keys to the Roller that is News Corp”, eldest son Lachlan has slipped into the driving seat alongside his ageing father.

He becomes non-executive co-chairman of News Corp in a move his father says is “a sign of confidence” in the group’s growth potential and a recognition of his son’s “entrepreneurial leadership and passion for news, digital media and sport”.

Lachlan Murdoch will also be non-executive co-chairman of 21st Century Fox, while brother James becomes co-chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox. Lachlan Murdoch has resigned from the chairmanship of Ten and has “unwound” the agreement he had with James Packer under which the two jointly controlled about 17.6 per cent of the Australian TV network.

It’ll be an interesting time, and although the mutual feelings with John Hartigan and others which Totaro writes about – “Harto never really rated Lachlan,” she quotes a source close to both, “and the feeling was mutual” – have ceased to be relevant, relationships with top executives will be key. Hartigan and his successor Kim Williams have been consigned to history, and News Corp Australia is under the ‘old school’ leadership of Julian Clarke… although it’s not clear for how much longer.

However, the two separated groups depend for their success on a tight network of key leaders both in publishing and entertainment. The latest announcement certainly contains a lot of qualifiers and ‘co’ roles, for both brothers, and leaves scope for meddling and frustration.

In his announcement, Rupert Murdoch says Lachlan “will help us lead News Corp forward as we expand our reach and invest in new technologies and markets around the world”.

There’s certainly scope, and we look forward to it working really well. It’s time it did.

Peter Coleman

See http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2012/march/1330562641/paola-totaro/reluctant-son

Picture: The Australian

Peter Coleman