James Murdoch has been promoted to deputy chief operating officer at News Corp and chairman and chief executive of its international operations, confirming him as the family’s heir presumptive and setting the scene for a staggered handover of power at the $46bn (£29bn) media group.
The move comes weeks after the group run by 80-year-old Rupert Murdoch bought Shine, a TV production company run by his daughter Elisabeth, and amid signs that his eldest son Lachlan Murdoch becoming more involved in News Corp’s activities.
However, it dispels questions about whether James Murdoch remained the favoured sibling to succeed his father.
The 38-year-old James will move from London to New York, marking the first time since Lachlan gave up his executive duties after clashing with other executives there that one of Mr Murdoch’s adult children has been based in News Corp’s headquarters.
“He has been told that if he wants the top job, New York is the base,” said one person familiar with the company, who speculated that the move would be followed within two years by Rupert Murdoch handing the chief executive title to Chase Carey, while remaining chairman himself, and giving James Mr Carey’s chief operating officer title.
“It allows James to be sitting at the centre of the company,” one person close to him said, adding that a strong set of executives would continue to operate the businesses from western Europe to India for which he has been responsible since 2007.
His relocation comes as News Corp is hoping for formal approval of its bid for full control of British Sky Broadcasting, the satellite broadcaster where he remains non-executive chairman.
The UK culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said on Wednesday that he hoped to announce his decision on whether to allow the BSkyB bid to go ahead “soon after the parliamentary recess ends” on April 26th. News Corp then has to agree a price with BSkyB’s independent directors.
“There will be no change in reporting lines, and James is not adding any direct reports,” the person close to James Murdoch said. However, his broader international title may allow him to play a more central role in parts of the world beyond Europe and Asia, while his deputy COO role could see him more closely involved in digital strategy in the US and around the world.
The announcement confirms the pivotal role played at News Corp by Chase Carey, its chief operating officer, to whom James Murdoch will report. Several people familiar with both men said that they already had a closer rapport than Lachlan Murdoch had established with Peter Chernin, Mr Carey’s predecessor.
Another person close to the company agreed that James Murdoch’s family was well-settled in London, with their two of their three young children being educated in the city.
His American-born wife, Kathryn, is said by two people who know her well to be an Anglophile who enjoys life in Notting Hill.
“Yes, they are well settled and James enjoys living in London, but we all have to move for promotions and this is a promotion for him,” this person said, adding that Mr Murdoch may move sooner than his family, with the process going on “over the spring and summer”.
Mr Murdoch will continue to have an office in News Corp’s Wapping offices in east London and will oversee its indicative offer of £8.3bn for the 60.9 per cent of British Sky Broadcasting shares it does not already own.
He will spend less time in London but none of his UK-based executives will change jobs to compensate for his departure, the person said, adding that the move to New York was “wholly unconnected” to the burgeoning scandal around the behaviour of News of the World journalists who are accused of hacking into the mobile phone voicemails of celebrities and politicians. Among Mr Murdoch’s titles is chairman of News Group Newspapers, parent company of the UK Sunday tabloid paper.
Another person who knows Mr Murdoch socially as well as professionally said: “He is going to get a lot more exposure to the US business like this. He will be close to his father and it would hardly be surprising if his father, who after all is 80, didn’t want to have some extra management expertise close at hand.”
by Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Ben Fenton taken from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/919ed538-5ada-11e0-8900-00144feab49a.html#axzz1IB8XCOJy
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