I have always thought that the big question about News Corp. is what happens when Murdoch dies? No question that he has been a very sharp cookie, and has seldom made any significant mistakes.
Sure enough, here’s the key quote, IMHO: “The 76-year-old Murdoch makes no secret of his desire to one day elevate one of his children to the top of News Corp. When that happens, there is no assurance that Chernin will continue to run his own show.”
I keep thinking about families like the Rockefellers or the Sulzbergers. Inevitably you will run out of steam in the second, third, or fourth generation. There are already some signs that Murdoch Jr. is more liberal than his father. Not that the old man is conservative if it will cost him any money, but at least he is sensible enough to know that you can’t make money if your first priority is crazed liberal ideology.
The early Sulzbergers were liberal, but smart and flexible. Pinch is too dumb to understand why he is killing his own business. Sooner or later the same thing is likely to happen to the Murdoch empire.
.....I keep thinking about families like the Rockefellers or the Sulzbergers.....
You make a good point and I won’t deny the possibility of a next generation Murdoch wrecking the train.
It seems to me that Rupert has hired and is allowing a very good man to seek out paths into an unknown and difficulty frought future. That seems out of the pattern for those we read about here daily that seem to want to stay pretty much in their comfortable ruts.
A while back, I became afraid for my well being when Malcom Forbes, a man I implicitly trusted, died. This great Capitalist, journalist,motorcycle gang leader, interviewer/ confident of world leaders, left the company to his sons. Steve has Forbes magazine and the other sons have lesser pieces All are still part of the whole. They have done well. Steve it turns out was present with his dad and actually knew the leaders, the mtorcycle types, the company staff. He has done well and I continue to trust Forbes above all others.