LACHLAN MURDOCH

Lachlan Murdoch was born in London in September 1971, the third of Rupert Murdoch's six children. He grew up between New York and Australia, attending Geelong Grammar School in Victoria — one of Australia's most elite boarding schools.

He studied philosophy at Princeton University, graduating in 1994.

He joined News Corporation in his early twenties, working in the Australian newspaper division. By 1996, aged just 24, Rupert had installed him as executive chairman of News Limited, the Australian newspaper arm — a decision that created significant resentment among veteran executives.

He also ran HarperCollins Australia.

In 2001, Rupert brought him to New York as deputy chief operating officer of the entire News Corp group. The relationship with entrenched management was never easy.

Roger Ailes at Fox News and Peter Chernin as president both had far more institutional power than Lachlan and did not hide it. By 2005, Lachlan had had enough.

He resigned suddenly, giving up all his News Corp positions.

Back in Australia, he founded Illyria Pty Ltd as his private investment vehicle and acquired a 50.1% controlling stake in Ten Network Holdings (Channel Ten), the struggling third broadcaster. The investment ultimately went to zero when Ten went into voluntary administration in 2017 and was sold to CBS.

Lachlan lost tens of millions.

In 2014, Rupert brought him back to co-chair 21st Century Fox alongside his brother James, who was then CEO. When Disney bought most of 21st Century Fox for $71 billion in 2019, the Murdoch family retained Fox Corporation — the broadcasting assets including Fox News and Fox Sports.

Lachlan was named CEO.

When Rupert Murdoch stepped down as chairman of both Fox Corp and News Corp in November 2023, Lachlan became executive chairman of both companies. The succession was complete.

Fox Corporation is the main event. It owns Fox News (the most-watched cable news network in the US), Fox Business Network, Fox Sports, Fox Broadcasting, and dozens of local TV stations.

Annual revenue runs around $14 billion. Fox News alone generates billions in earnings annually.

News Corp (co-chairman) owns the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The Times and Sunday Times in the UK, HarperCollins Publishers, and Dow Jones. It is the print and digital side of the Murdoch empire.

Illyria Pty Ltd is his private investment company, through which he holds various stakes in Australian media, real estate, and other assets.

Channel Ten (Australia): His controlling stake through Illyria ended in total loss when the broadcaster went into voluntary administration in 2017. CBS acquired it for a fraction of its prior value.

A rare clean failure in an otherwise ascending career.

Lachlan's thinking is anchored in large-scale media assets where distribution creates the moat. Fox News doesn't dominate because it makes the best journalism — it dominates because it owns the audience.

He is a distributor-first, content-second thinker. His private investments via Illyria lean toward Australian real estate and media assets with strong recurring cash flows.

He is not a venture capitalist and is not known for speculative bets on new technology. He bets on things that already have the audience.

The Fox Corporation spin-off from the Disney-21st Century Fox deal in 2019 is his defining business outcome. When Disney paid $71 billion for most of 21st Century Fox's assets, the Murdoch family retained Fox Corp — the broadcasting assets that Disney already owned equivalents of and did not need.

Fox News alone has generated billions in operating earnings since the spin-off. Lachlan inherited the company that the most powerful entertainment corporation on Earth did not want.

It turned out to be extremely worth keeping.

Channel Ten in Australia. Through his Illyria vehicle, Lachlan took a 50.1% controlling stake in the struggling third-placed Australian broadcaster.

He invested in local content and tried to chase younger audiences. It did not work.

Channel Ten went into voluntary administration in 2017 and was sold to CBS (now Paramount) for a fraction of what it had been worth. Lachlan lost tens of millions of his own money on the investment.

The lesson: a broadcaster in third place in a three-network market cannot be rescued by content investment alone — you need the distribution position first.

Lachlan believes in the enduring power of live events and live news in a fragmenting media landscape. His thesis at Fox Corp is that when everything else moves to streaming and fragments across twenty platforms, live sports and live news are the last things people watch together in real time.

That makes them uniquely valuable to both advertisers and cable distributors. He is not wrong about the thesis.

The question is whether cable TV sustains itself long enough for the theory to keep paying out.

Lachlan is married to Sarah Murdoch (nee O'Hare), an Australian supermodel and television presenter who was Miss Universe Australia in 1997. They have three children: Kalan, Aidan, and Aerin.

The family splits time between Los Angeles and Sydney. His father Rupert Murdoch stepped down as chairman in late 2023 at age 92.

His brother James Murdoch is no longer involved in the family businesses after a very public falling out over editorial direction and climate change policy at News Corp. The brothers have a famously cold relationship.

Lachlan attended Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia — one of the most academically prestigious boarding schools in the country. He then studied philosophy at Princeton University, graduating in 1994.

He has spoken about philosophy shaping how he thinks about long-term questions of culture, media, and influence — though he is careful not to let it sound academic in public settings.

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