Meet the Murdochs, the Last News Dynasty

6 children compete for affection and business, writes Wolff

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 3, 2008 8:24 AM CST

(Newser) – In an age of MBA-holding executives and shareholder revolts, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is that rarest thing: a business dynasty. The media mogul's six children, by three different wives, have conducted their power plays in public and private. But as Michael Wolff writes in Vanity Fair, while the elder Murdochs have accepted their young siblings' claim to Rupert's fortune, they're keeping News Corp. for themselves.

Prue, the eldest at 50, is the "family wingnut," but ambitious James, easygoing Lachlan and entrepreneurial Elisabeth have all at one time seemed Rupert's chosen heir. The simmering feud with their stepmother Wendi—who Wolff says is "not Becky Sharp, she's Pip in Great Expectations"—ended only when Rupert used a TV interview to spell out his children's inheritance. But for all its troubles, the Murdoch family provided Rupert with something critical: a dynasty that helped him justify his takeover of the Wall Street Journal from that "unwieldy lot of cousins," the Bancrofts.

[Images (6)]

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Australian businessman Lachlan Murdoch, son of News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, arrives at Kirribilli House in Sydney, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Elisabeth Murdoch arrives at the Five Women In Film And Television Awards at the Hilton Park Lane on December 7, 2007 in London, England. (Getty Images)

James Murdoch, CEO of BskyB, addresses a session during the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York in this May 16, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Osamu Honda, file)

News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng leave a news conference following the News Corp. annual meeting, Friday Oct. 19, 2007 in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Murdoch's News Corp. owns British national newspapers The Sun and The Times. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Murdoch's News Corp. owns The New York Post, top, and The Wall Street Journal. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

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The press scrutiny alone for young people upon whom have been bestowed too much money and too many expectations is deadly. But in this, obviously, the Murdochs are spared considerable pain—a significant part of the media protects them.
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Meet the Murdochs, the Last News Dynasty