FILE PHOTO: James Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and his wife Kathryn Hufschmid arrive at St Bride’s church for a service to celebrate the wedding between Rupert Murdoch and former supermodel Jerry Hall which took place on Friday, in London in March 2016.
NEW YORK: James Murdoch has resigned from News Corp’s board, citing disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company’s media outlets, the news publisher disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday (Jul 31).
While tendering the resignation, Murdoch also cited differences over certain strategic decisions of the company.
The departure of the son of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch would leave the News Corp board with 10 directors.
News Corp owns the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Times and the Sun newspapers among others, but not Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News network.
News Corp in May had posted a US$1 billion quarterly loss due to a writedown in the value of its Australian pay TV unit and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its businesses.
James Murdoch was once seen as his father’s successor, but Friday’s move reinforces his disengagement from the family media empire, which grew from a newspaper group in Australia.
Murdoch, Rupert’s younger son, headed 21st Century Fox until last year when he left after Disney acquired most of the group’s assets.
Murdoch, 47, has recently been critical of his father’s business and its media coverage.
In January, he denounced the climate change skepticism of some Murdoch media, citing coverage of the fires which devastated large parts of Australia.
He has launched his own private holding company called Lupa Systems, which among other things has taken a stake in Vice Media.
“We’re grateful to James for his many years of service to the company. We wish him the very best in his future endeavors,” said Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp and James’s brother Lachlan Murdoch in a statement.
