Rupert Murdoch's Heir Apparent
James Murdoch is considered rather a good egg, but that may not be enough for News Corp's shareholders.
Like King Lear, the ageing Rupert Murdoch has split his kingdom. The difference is that he has taken the precaution of hanging on to the more important part. He keeps America as well as Australia, where it all started; but has bequeathed Europe and Asia to his younger son James, formerly chief executive of BSkyB.
These are momentous developments in the media world – not least because the move appears to mark the anointing of the younger Murdoch as the chosen dynastic heir.
James Murdoch's apotheosis is a shot in the arm for black sheep everywhere. A decade ago, few would have put money on him stealing ahead of his more conservative brother, Lachlan, let alone garnering the corporate and political power he now wields.
A Harvard dropout, who went on to found a hip-hop label, he marked his rebellion with a beard and eyebrow stud. Yet this move puts him in charge of the most powerful newspaper group in Britain.
As chairman of BSkyB, he also controls the UK's largest pay TV provider, and its fastest-growing broadband internet and telephone network. On paper, that makes him the most powerful opinion-former in the country. The slightly unnerving fact about James Murdoch is that he seems rather a good egg.
Impeccably green and instinctively liberal – and less likely than the old man to use pliant editors and politicians to further business interests – he's his own man and, unlike his brother (who suffered from having Dad down the corridor and ended up retreating to Australia) he has wisely stayed an ocean away from Murdoch Sr.
But don't underestimate his drive. At BSkyB he has shown his father's willingness to worst opponents, take risks and invest aggressively.
Bored with Britain, wild about The Wall Street Journal – that's the basic backdrop to the seismic changes Rupert Murdoch has just made to his organisation. At 76, he is now a senior citizen in a hurry: having achieved his dream of acquiring an international publishing franchise, he wants to focus on it. He has thus summoned his trustiest lieutenants to America to concentrate on slaying new dragons and outsourced Britain to James.
Yet it would be wrong to assume the latter will be a shoo-in for the top job when Rupert finally departs for the great newsroom in the sky. News Corp is not a dynasty: it is a publicly quoted company in which the Murdochs are minority shareholders. James might be the heir apparent, but he still needs to prove himself.
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