James Murdoch, the beneficiary of an additional $1.1 billion thanks to the settlement that freed himself from his older brother and father’s News Corp and Fox empires, may be back in the media game in a big way.
The younger Murdoch is said to be in talks with Vox Media about a purchase New York The origins of the magazine section, the Vox podcast, and Rupert Murdoch’s crown jewel Broadcast The Wall Street Journal Quoted from sources. A rep for James declined to comment on the story from the newspaper, which said the deal could still fall through.
Since leaving his position as CEO of 21st Century Fox after selling most of its assets to Disney in a $71.3 billion deal in 2019, Murdoch has focused his efforts on building his investment firm Lupa Systems. His company acquired a stake in the owner of the Art Basel fair as well as in Tribeca Enterprises, which participates in the Tribeca Film Festival, among other assets.
buying New York It would be akin to being the host of one of the world’s last magazine giants — a publication that was also owned by his father for 15 years until Rupert’s News Corp divested its holdings in 1991. (Murdoch bought New York Post The same year he bought it New York magazine, and I kept it – the tabloid is one of Robert’s favorite papers.) So there succession And the media dynasty element in the potential deal as well.
New Yorkin its latest incarnation, has been owned by Vox Media since 2019, when the new media publisher snapped up the venerable magazine from Pamela Wasserstein, the daughter of investment banker Bruce Wasserstein, who had owned the publication since 2004. (Penske Media, owner Hollywood Reporteralso has a stake in Vox Media as part of a 2023 deal announced by Bankoff and PMC owner Jay Penske.)
If the deal goes through, Murdoch will vault more prominently into the world of billionaires who own a single influential news outlet, such as Jeff Bezos’ foundation. The Washington Post Or Laurene Powell Jobs in Atlantic Or Marc Benioff in time Magazine or Patrick Soon-Shiong with Los Angeles Times. Most of these owners can be considered frivolous media owners. Most have, at some point, invested in the long-term growth of those properties, and a few have since retrenched and cut costs. By contrast, James Murdoch has the bank account of a convenience store owner, but a long career as a media mogul.
Despite his role as heir to a famous conservative-leaning media empire consisting of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and New York Post Among his television and publishing assets, James has distanced himself from the politics of his older brother Lachlan and positioned himself as a centrist, donating to nonprofits related to climate change and Democratic-leaning issues.
He’s now also left behind a brutal legal battle for control of his family’s business of the past. In a surprise settlement revealed last September, James agreed with his siblings Prudence MacLeod and Elizabeth Murdoch to make major purchases of their voting shares in Fox and News Corp, effectively handing the keys to Rupert’s kingdom to his eldest son Lachlan for $1 billion each.
Vox Media is led by Jim Bankoff, the current owner of New Yorkis one of the last remaining new media companies that arose during the time when BuzzFeed, Mashable, Mic, and HuffPost led the way in the broad game of the 2000s to gain tens of millions of monthly readers through increased distribution on social media.
First, Facebook turned off the traffic spigot, then AI-generated summaries drove away readers who might have clicked on Google. New York Mag, if you add sub-sectors to it such as eagle and Piecesattracting nearly 10 million visitors as of March, according to Comscore. This puts the property well ahead of, for example, most regional monthly magazines but well below the nationally focused newspapers that attract about 40 million unique magazines such as, for example, mail or magazine.
But many publishers have moved beyond the traffic game, and New York It’s one of the most popular titles on physical newsstands (yes, many of them still exist in the city), with a loyal base of print subscribers, as well as a foothold in events and more.
Vox Media, also owner of eater, Edge, SP Nation As well as its explanation site Foxis expected to consider separating its publishing assets from its podcasting assets (it’s home to Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway). Axis displays). The idea is that applicants who might be interested in managing publishing assets will use different media playbooks than podcasts, some of which have flourished in the era of audio video streaming.
