When someone mentions the Murdochs, you think of two things. The first thing you think about succession, Because creator Jesse Armstrong was so fascinated by family dynamics that he wrote a screenplay titled Murdoch Firstly. And you think about conservative politics, because Fox News, which now dominates linear television, came about thanks to Rupert Murdoch, as we know from history and through 14 different limited series.
Both ideas reared their heads with news on Wednesday that James Murdoch would pay about $300 million to take control of half of the Vox Media empire, including… New York magazine. The move expanded the younger Murdoch’s son’s portfolio – hardly to the level of Lachlan’s remit at Fox News (what is it?) but at least so that we were now talking about media manipulation of James in the same segment as his older brother.
It linked Murdoch – for the first time in nearly four decades – with a left-leaning media outlet. While James was announcing his purchase, New York vertical Intelligence He was publishing an analysis piece titled “Trump’s self-absorption spells disaster in GOP midterms,” a phrase one could hardly imagine at the bottom of Fox News. (Penske Media, owner Hollywood Reporteralso has a stake in Vox Media as part of a 2023 deal announced by current Vox CEO Jim Bankoff and PMC owner Jay Penske.)
Both of these branches capture the imagination, and anyone interested in the Genesis-level power drama between younger and older brothers will eagerly eat popcorn as the real-life version of this unfolds, if with a modern political sheen; Jacob and Esau never published competing articles on redistricting.
However, a more important informational point may have slipped under the watch’s display. Because the weapon he was using to do this was just as important as the way James was trying to fend off his brother.
At the center of the buying process are Vox Podcasts, which are hugely popular (and lucrative) talk-fests from personalities who made their name at other organizations/in other fields before becoming solo stars in this new digital podcast world — people like Esther Perel, Sean Rameswaram, and Kara Swisher-Scott Galloway. You won’t find a better exhibition of this new creator economy (at least the new creator economy as envisioned by influencers in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles).
Furthermore, James Murdoch has explicitly told his MPs that this is an area he wants to develop, attracting as many legacy media refugees as possible – and then giving them money and support as part of his new network and pocketing the proceeds. “If you’ve built your brand and have a large following, James wants you to come here and be part of this platform,” is how a source close to him described the show to me when we spoke on Wednesday.
I heard this and thought “well, that’s an interesting suggestion”. The past few years have brought a massive and often successful influx of legacy brands — whether they be staples like Tucker Carlson, Don Lemon, Megyn Kelly, and Jim Acosta; acerbic commentators and correspondents such as Oliver D’Arcy and Isaac Saul; And certainly soon, network members like Stephen Colbert and other late-night deserters. It was only a matter of time before someone not named Substack came to care for and shelter them. Whether this person can turn it into a fruitful business – providing these personalities with enough team support to make their joining worthwhile but not a lot They’ve gone back to an old brand – that remains to be seen. But more such exits will follow, and collecting them is not a crazy gamble an aspiring media mogul can take in 2020.
But of course these are not the only properties that James Murdoch is buying. The 53-year-old and his Lupa systems are also excelling New York Magazine, one of the most powerful text-based titles. For nearly 60 years, the place has had its ups and downs, but the past quarter century has been mostly up, fueled by such verticals as strategic, Pieces and eagle And the journalistic strength of the overall brand. On Tuesday night, hours before Murdoch announced the takeover, New York He received the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. I’m not sure he’ll get much more of a legacy. However, James also buys this title with the same stroke of the pen that he uses to play the role of influencer.
He won’t be negative about it. James Murdoch will serve New Yorknot ready for sale, in the short term with a good dose of investment, following the pattern that (at least initially) accompanied billionaires’ takeover of old outlets from Atlantic to The Washington Post.
This creator’s play and this ancient play seem to fit together…uneasy. Reading about what he’s trying to do with both the upcoming and old Kara Swisher New York Magazine At the same time, you might be tempted to say, “Um, choose the path?” Or “What exactly kind of media company are you trying to be?”
The field of media creation and podcasting is growing and seemingly endless. While an old business, which would not be news to you, is in deep trouble. Brands aren’t resonating, traffic isn’t growing (declining), people aren’t reading/watching, and AI bots are about to aggregate and remix the consumption of this content, let alone the production. Like many online brands, Pieces and eagle Comscore has been seeing a double-digit decline for several months, which means subscription packages need to scale quickly.
Murdoch has been winning over skeptics behind the scenes by citing his skills since he was shipping the Star satellite service in India in the early 2000s. This is not unconvincing, although we have to see whether attracting viewers in Asia to pay for Hollywood films is the same as convincing Americans to consume journalism.
But here I think Murdoch is rolling the dice in a way that few other would-be moguls do: He’s betting that you can somehow combine legacy and creative in a way that will impact both — which will, in essence, give some single-star vibes to a legacy niche that’s always been about the title first, but also give some gravitas and OG appeal (and decades of solid work) to the uninitiated. Perhaps the closest counterpart is YouTube, which in recently concluded interfaces has begun to bridge these worlds in a way we’ve never seen before: There was a creator like Alex Cooper promoting what were effectively unscripted shows for basic cable around 2016, while the guy who dominated basic cable around 2016, Trevor Noah, was there moving into creator content.
“You’re starting to see big brands moving toward creators and creators moving toward big legacy content, and soon they’ll meet in the middle,” Noah told me at a YouTube event, and with James Murdoch’s strategy in focus on Wednesday, that prediction (made a week ago) seemed especially spot on.
Will this work? Nobody has any idea. Both sides are actually facing some problems – obviously legacy brands due to the stormy forces of declining traffic and trust-busting algorithms, but also due to unique stars as AI bots threaten to remix how we consume them, in some cases ensuring that their work gets filtered to us without them picking up any views at all. I’m not sure that combining these aspects constitutes a wiser strategy than pouring old milk into questionable cereal makes for a better breakfast. But I think that in a media moment when these two worlds seem to be converging, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea to participate in both and see which way the convergence goes. (And to underscore the strategy: Murdoch has chosen not to buy digital brands that aren’t known for their personalities, e.g A To eat and Edge.)
The last time Murdoch controlled a liberal publication was when Rupert – wait for it – owned it. New York magazine, for a 15-year run that ended in 1991. That was five years before the most important media institution of our time was swooped in with the launch of Fox News.
Lachlan Murdoch now flies a huge plane with plenty of clear skies. His younger brother had just stopped by, hoping he could get a new Embraer.
