‘We’re clearly heading towards collapse’: why the Murdoch empire is about to go bang

An explosive succession trial and an astonishing interview with one of Rupert’s sons have exposed the paranoia and hatred at the heart of global media’s most powerful family. This could get messy…. When some of the mind games and manoeuvres that turned a Murdoch family “retreat” into an ordeal appeared in Succession, the TV drama about squabbling family members of a right-wing media company, members of the real-life family started to suspect each other of leaking details to the writers. The truth was more straightforward. Succession’s creator, Jesse Armstrong, said that his team hadn’t needed inside sources – they had simply read press reports.

Future screenwriters have been gifted a whole load of new Murdoch material in the past few days, after two astonishing stories in the New York Times and the Atlantic lifted the lid on the dysfunction, paranoia and despair at the heart of the most powerful family in global media.

The stories followed the end of the secret trial involving the fate of the Murdoch family trust. The mogul’s four eldest children – Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence – were set to inherit the family firm following Rupert’s death. But four years ago, just after turning 90, Rupert had tried to cut James, Liz and Prue out of their inheritance and hand the businesses over to Lachlan, his favoured heir who also happens to share his increasingly right-wing politics.

The lawsuit was brought by the three errant offspring, and in December a Nevada commissioner ruled in their favour, accusing Rupert and Lachlan of acting in “bad faith”. The trial took place in secret, but the fallout – thanks to the New York Times investigation and a 13,000-word Atlantic interview with James – has been anything but.

Among the highlights – or the lowlights if you’re a Murdoch – were the revelation that Rupert’s plan to disinherit three of his four eldest children was dubbed “Project Family Harmony”, that Rupert’s lawyer had accused the three children of being “white, privileged, multibillionaire trust-fund babies”, and that James now viewed his father as a “misogynist”. As Jesse Armstrong might have said, he didn’t need to make it up.

The fallout from this family saga will not just be felt by Rupert’s six children (two by his third wife, Wendi Deng, inherit an economic rather than controlling stake) but by a vast business empire which includes Fox News in the US, HarperCollins and news titles, including the Times and the Sun in the UK.

While News UK made no comment, a former adviser was furious at the potential impact. “It’s hard to overstate how uncertain everyone associated with the company feels right now. You’ve got some great journalists doing great work while squabbling billionaires fall out over even more money.”.

The decision by the Nevada family court judge is still to be approved after Rupert and Lachlan lodged an appeal, but few lawyers believe they will succeed. If the dispute is to be settled before the trust dissolves in 2030, the most likely scenario is for a sale of parts of the business valued at a combined $43bn. Such disposals could end decades of Murdoch family influence in the US and British political systems.

The timing of this very public washing of the family linen comes just as the businesses themselves are enjoying a political and legal boom. The anti-environmentalist, right-wing causes espoused by Murdoch’s Fox News may be loathed by some of his children but are very much in tune with the new US president. About a week before the NYT exposé, a withered-looking Rupert was pictured in the Oval Office alongside President Trump.

Meanwhile, in the UK, News Corp has finally settled with Prince Harry, effectively ending a phone hacking scandal which kicked off in 2011. At a time when the news should be good for the future of the business, family members are at loggerheads over their share in the future. A dysfunctional family presiding over a functioning business.

Claire Enders, who has studied the Murdoch empire for 40 years, is among many analysts who see little logic in the recent developments. “As a business analyst, I don’t see what the purpose was. I don’t see what they’re in such great disagreement about, since they’ve all contributed hugely to the value created since the nadir of the company only 13 years ago.”.

Author Michael Wolff tells me that the latest shenanigans simply “confirm” the hypothesis of his latest book on the family, which he called The Fall: The End of the Murdoch Empire. “I think that we’re clearly heading toward that [collapse]…Lachlan will be fired and the rest of the company will be dismantled.” Following the excoriating court ruling, Rupert has to either survive until he turns 99 in 2030 when the trust expires, or reach a settlement with James, Liz and Prue, dubbed the “objecting children” in court. With figures of $1bn for each beneficiary being mentioned in court and time running out, rumours of a sale of part of the business have multiplied, adding further uncertainty.