The Murdoch Succession War is Over, and Fox Crowns its Next Leader

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by the New York Times’ Jim Rutenberg to discuss the bombshell news that the Murdochs have settled their ongoing family trust succession dispute, which will now keep Lachlan Murdoch on top, with the other siblings taking buyouts for over $1 billion each. Matt and Jim discuss why the siblings finally settled, if this was a good deal for them or a disappointing capitulation, and what's next for the Fox empire under Lachlan (02:52). Matt finishes the show with an Oscar prediction after attending the Toronto Film Festival (27:25). For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Email us your thoughts! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thetown@spotify.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Jim Rutenberg Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, it's Amy Polar, and I'm launching a new podcast called Good Hang.
0:05.1	In preparation for that, I asked some of my friends to send in some videos and give me some advice.
0:10.6	Just be yourself, and the guests will come.
0:13.1	Don't be the celebrity that this is their, like, sixth thing they're doing.
0:16.0	I love true crime and cooking podcasts. Is there any way you could combine the two? Well, everyone has an opinion and a podcast. So, join me for good hang. It's rough out there. We're just trying to lighten it up a little.
0:31.8	It is Tuesday, September 9th. For years now, we've been talking about these succession issues plaguing the Murdoch
0:38.7	family in their conservative media empire. So much so, they made a whole HBO show about it.
0:44.2	Rupert is now 94, a spry 94, we are told. And for the past couple years, he's been locked in
0:49.8	family court in Nevada over the terms of his trust, which provided that the media company
0:54.8	that includes Fox News, the Fox Broadcast Network, Fox Fores, plus the New York Post and Wall
0:59.3	Street Journal, a bunch of other assets worldwide, it would be split evenly amongst his four
1:04.4	adult children. That's Lockland, Rupert's preferred heir, who currently runs Fox Corp, and James,
1:10.4	Elizabeth, and Prudence, the three kids
1:12.4	who do not necessarily share their father's love of conservative politics and tabloid news.
1:18.2	Rupert actually lost a key ruling in Nevada recently, meaning that if he died, Lachlan could be
1:23.2	outvoted by his siblings, and assets like Fox News could be sold or even turned into a more
1:28.9	liberal version of itself. I never quite believe that part. But not anymore. Yesterday we got the
1:35.1	bombshell news that the Murdox have settled. There will be a new trust ensuring Lockland
1:40.2	stays atop the empire and the three other kids will be bought out to the tune of about
1:44.3	$1.1 billion each. Remember, that's on top of the $2 billion they each got when Rupert sold
1:50.6	most of Fox to Disney in 2019. A good deal for the kids, right? That's more than what Rupert and
1:56.7	Lachlan were initially willing to pay them, but it's only about 80% of what their shares were
	...

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