Succession

It was a wise editor at The Courier-Mail—whose name was, literally, Neil Wiseman—who advised me to “become a business journalist—people will always need business explained to them.” That’s how I wound up in the small but mighty finance pages of the newspaper and began reporting on Australia’s media sector. Actually, the reason for the latter was because it was the business beat no one wanted: “You want me to report on the media sector dominated by Rupert … for his newspaper? Uh, no thanks.”

The operative word in that sentence is “his.” The Courier-Mail was owned by Queensland Newspapers, which was back in the 1990s the only part of the sprawling global Murdoch media empire actually owned by his family. News Corporation was controlled by Rupert; Queensland Newspapers was directly owned by him. That’s how and why his eldest son Lachlan in 1993 turned up fresh out of Princeton to become general manager and, in theory, begin his executive ascent. When you own the company, you can let your son jump a few levels from the get-go.

Back then, Lachlan was basically just a mystery. He had a tattoo on his forearm, which now seems comically rebellious. He apparently rock climbed. He rode a motorbike. And the big early scandal was the rumor he was considering two cars—a BMW M-series or a hotted-up Holden Commodore—and wound up getting the BMW because the local Holden dealer refused to bring him a car to test drive (“I don’t care who you are—you come to us!” Talk about a bone-headed sales move). My memories are both vague and specific: Lachlan and I would speak on the newsroom floor about media goings on but I can’t recall any details, yet I distinctly remember him having peanut-butter breath one day, which struck me as a quintessentially American thing.

Lachlan didn’t hang around Brisbane for long—he had more to learn. But I became more enmeshed in the media sector, moving to report on it for all News Limited papers with the exception of The Australian, and then jumping to do the same at The Australian Financial Review. As part of News Limited’s great (and only) rival, Fairfax, that presented my first chance to report more critically on Murdoch and broader News Corp goings on. I should note I was only once censored within the Murdoch empire: an article was pulled off the page in the composing room (these were the days before pagination) by the editor in chief with the directive, “We don’t write about Rupert dying” (it was an article about how much the Rupert aura contributed to News Corp’s value). What was allowed and wasn’t just went unsaid—we all knew the limits.

So, it’s through this lens that I’ve read with interest the reports of Rupert “retiring” to hand the empire’s reins to Lachlan. Generally, everyone seems to agree he’s not retiring at all. Maybe the titles have shifted, but he’ll still have his fingers in as many pies as he can. Everyone also seems to agree Lachlan got the nod for two primary reasons: he’s the eldest son (cue Kendall Roy, who ironically actually isn’t), and he was the last one standing.

Just how similar the Murdoch clan is to the “fictional” Roy family is a discussion for another day (although I’m not at all surprised Rupert apparently demanded his fourth ex-wife, Jerry Hall, not provide plotlines to the writers of Succession as part of their divorce settlement). But Rupert and Logan Roy are very similar, especially in one aspect most commentators seem to ignore.

A lot of Rupert coverage has sought to ascribe some grand philosophy to his career, especially around politics and class warfare. Surely, the argument goes, the creator of Fox shares that network’s worldview. Rupert has core convictions, of course. But he’s also easier to read than any poker chump because his core convictions are shockingly visible and consistent: he cares about power and money. Period. I’d argue he understands better than almost anyone of the past century the symbiotic relationship of those two elements, especially how to use money to wield power when you happen to be in a position to drive the public narrative.

The question now is just what kind of views Lachlan has. I suspect while Rupert is and has always been a consistently brazen opportunist—has anyone ever ditched their citizenship so quickly to advance their career?—Lachlan is more of a true believer. While Rupert recognized Donald Trump for who he was but turned a blind eye for the sake of the bottom line, Lachlan’s politics seem so entrenched that he’s no longer on speaking terms with younger brother James.

I also suspect this will be worse than the world according to Rupert, although we have consolation in the fact the “empire” Lachlan inherits is a shadow of its former self. There are also two other factors. The first is that the family dynamics are nowhere near settled, not only with Lachlan’s brother and sister, but the extended step-siblings. And the second is the mildly inconvenient fact that whenever Lachlan was let loose on business decisions flying solo-ish, things didn’t turn out so well. Those decisions may be harder to make when surrounded by smart people, especially when Lachlan’s power is perceived as inherited rather than earned.