Rupert Murdoch steps down as Fox and News Corp chairman in favour of son Lachlan

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch says he is stepping down as chairman of Fox and News Corp, with his son Lachlan to head both companies.

In a memo to employees, Murdoch said “the time is right” for him to take on “different roles”.

Murdoch, 92, launched Fox News in 1996. It is now the most watched TV news channel in the US.

Murdoch said he will transition to the role of Chairman Emeritus of both firms in mid-November.

It comes months after the mogul ditched a plan to merge Fox and News Corp, which would have reunited two major media assets.

“Our companies are in robust health, as am I. Our opportunities far exceed our commercial challenges,” he wrote. “We have every reason to be optimistic about the coming years – I certainly am, and plan to be here to participate in them.”

The announcement of Murdoch’s transition comes during a turbulent year for Fox, which in April agreed to pay a $787.5m (£634m) settlement after being sued by voting machine company Dominion over its reporting of the 2020 presidential election. The network is still facing a second, similar lawsuit from another voting technology firm, Smartmatic, seeking an even larger sum of $2.7bn.

On 25 April, the company also announced it would “part ways” with Tucker Carlson, the network’s highest rating TV host.

The Murdoch transition comes a year before the US presidential election. The right-leaning network has significant influence in US politics and is hosting a number of debates between Republicans competing to be the party’s White House candidate.

In his memo to staff, the conservative Murdoch vowed to continue to be involved in the “contest of ideas”.

He also criticised other media outlets as being “in cahoots” with a “rarefied class” of elites who he accused of “peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth”.

In a statement, Lachlan Murdoch – who returned to the family business in 2014 after an abrupt departure nearly a decade earlier – said that his father “will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies”.

The elder Murdoch began his career in his native Australia in the 1950s, eventually buying the News of the World and The Sun newspapers in the UK in 1969.

He later purchased a number of US publications including the New York Post and Wall Street Journal. Through News Corp, he remains the owner of hundreds of local, national and international media outlets.

Until today’s announcement, Lachlan Murdoch had served as the executive chair of Fox Corporation and Nova Entertainment.

Fox shares rose almost 2% following the announcement that Murdoch was stepping down.

Professor Anat Alon-Beck, a corporate law expert, said that ultimately market reaction to Lachlan’s promotion will depend on whether Fox has a “solid and smart” plan that ensures “that the company’s leadership isn’t jeopardised just because the most powerful person CEO leaves the role”.