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Hold the front page – Murdoch is not immortal
He won’t ‘keep going and going’ and he wants one of his children to take over
Is Rupert Murdoch going soft? In a TV interview broadcast in Australia at the weekend he said he won't "keep going and going" and that he'd like one of his children to succeed him in running his media empire. "I am sure one of them will emerge," said Murdoch, 78. "It would be nice. Every parent likes to see that."
He admitted that a committee sits in New York every four months or so to discuss the succession at News Corp, which owns the 20th Century Fox film studio, Fox TV, Sky, and several newspapers including the Wall Street Journal and the London Times. The Murdoch family, with about 40 per cent of the voting rights, will "have a lot of say," he said.
Murdoch gave the interview as he visited Australia to see his mother Elizabeth, who recently turned 100. He was also expected to see his eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, who surprised media analysts in 2005 by announcing he was quitting as chief operating officer of News Corp (though keeping a seat on the board) and moving to Australia with his wife Sarah.
Last week Sarah announced that she was expecting a baby - the couple's third child - and within days it transpired that she and her husband had bought the most expensive private house ever sold at auction in Australia.
It is Le Manoir, the former French consulate in Sydney's exclusive eastern suburbs, with commanding views over Sydney Harbour and the Pacific ocean. The Murdochs outbid Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, paying A$23m (about £13m) for the six-bedroom house with tennis court, pool and professional kitchen.
The news hasn't stopped Murdoch Snr hoping that Lachlan will compete with his other children - Prudence, James and Elisabeth - to run New Corp. "I hope he'll come back one day," Murdoch told his interviewer.
Murdoch also touched on the contentious issue of Fox TV's use of right-wing commentators like Glenn Beck to attack President Obaba's policies. Asked about accusations that Fox TV is an arm of the Republican Party, he responded: "Nonsense." But he added: "We do have, it's perfectly true, a couple of commentary shows in the evening which tend to be strongly critical."
Asked how Obama was doing, he responded: "Badly". ·
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Unless Murdoch can find a method of earning revenue from the Internet that doesn't rely on traditional advertising methods then News Corp as well as all the other conventional outlets of conventional news including such edifices as The Economist and the NY Times and even the supposed successful WSJ are doomed to massive downsizing. In their race to get onto the Internet they all gave away their news stories and now they are crying foul because their content is being exploited by others. How can they compete against news outlets like this one that have minimal outlay, no presses and little union restriction plus good copy?
Simple, micro payments. But there's a catch.
For it to work the micro payments have to be 2 way. The advertisers not only pay the news outlet to put up their ads but also those that actually read their ads. Say 10 cents for each ad read and in return they would know the name and demographics of the person they paid. This opens up random cashed up buying individuals to paying target advertising. Right now only one company does that that I know of and their name is...
NYT too does not appear to be so immortal these days,if you care to look at the other side.