Politics of the media: Murdoch era coming to an end?

Brand Republic 10-Dec-07, 12:40

The ancient media moguls like Northcliffe, Hearst and Beaverbrook seem footnotes to history now, which is probably all they deserve, writes Stephen Foster,

Northcliffe went mad (but the Mail lives on), Hearst is best remembered for ‘Citizen Kane' (which I doubt he enjoyed watching) and Cosmopolitan, which arrived at National Magazines after he died.

As for the Beaver, there's nothing left much apart from the shell of the Daily Express and a note in the more patriotic histories about his brief contribution to aircraft production World War Two.

Will Rupert Murdoch leave a lasting legacy?

He hasn't gone yet, of course. But he's certainly giving it his best shot.

Last week, he anointed son James as his successor, placing him in charge of News Corporation's activities outside the US (James already knows the US pretty well, having studied there and run the New York papers for a bit).

Maybe Rupert has just become a bit cheesed off with hacking to and fro across the Atlantic in these post-Concorde days.

But, although you can't see him giving up the huge influence he still enjoys in Britain and the world outside America, there's a feeling that he's slowing down at last (wouldn't you at 76)?

There are two issues with James, well three maybe.

One is, will he take as close an interest in UK politics as his dad still does? Answer, almost certainly, No. One paper said today (Sunday) that he was no big fan of David Cameron. But how did they know?

The second is, will he be as committed as Rupert was to newspapers? Answer again, No. He's moving his office to the newspaper fastness of Wapping apparently, from Sky's base in Osterley, but this on its own is hardly likely to endear the newspapers to him. The opposite, in fact.

James is a new media man and far less likely than his dad to resist any shareholder initiative to dispose of the newspapers and concentrate on satellite and broadband.

None of this will happen, of course, while Rupert is still around.

The third issue is, will anyone other than Rupert be able to hold the line where Murdoch trusts control most of the votes in what is, if you except the likes of Google, the world's biggest media company?

No one doubts that James is a highly capable media executive but is he the best in the world?

And does he really want to spend the rest of his life keeping the family collection together?

Rupert's most recent deal was, of course, to snap up the Wall Street Journal for $5bn so, whatever happens to News Corporation in the medium term, there'll still be a substantial newspaper company there even if it's decoupled from Sky and Fox.

That has to be the most likely outcome.

James will need all the Murdoch grit to cope with this rather forbidding scenario.

Politics of the media is a regular series of opinion pieces for Brand Republic about the way media shapes politics and vice-versa. Stephen Foster is a partner at The Editorial Partnership and can be contacted at:steve-edco@blueyonder.co.uk.