• by Wayne Friedman , August 1, 2005

The Murdoch brand name is almost as well-known in TV and media as the Fox brand name that gave Rupert Murdoch his rise to media fame and fortune.

But that brand family value seems to have taken another hit last week when likely successor to the Fox Entertainment Corp. and News Corp. top spot, Lachlan Murdoch, the 33-year-old and oldest son of Rupert Murdoch, chairman-chief executive officer of News Corp., unexpectedly resigned as chairman of the Fox Television Network, the publisher of the New York Post, and as deputy chief operating officer of News Corp.

Lachlan Murdoch wants to move back to Australia. He will continue to be a director for the company, and an advisor. News Corp. shares closed at $17.34--down 23 cents, or 1.3% on Friday.

To stock market analysts, this was a bit of surprise--as it was Lachlan, more than Murdoch's other children, who had served a variety of senior executive positions in the company--including News Corp.'s Australian and Hong Kong media properties. Lachlan Murdoch also worked at BSkyB, which is currently being run by Rupert Murdoch's 32-year-old son, James.

Still, the company is in good hands, according to business experts.

"It won't have any material effect," said Dennis McAlpine, managing director of McAlpine Associates.

For the most part, that is because News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin has been at the helm for many years, and is the heir apparent in the near term to succeed the 74-year-old Rupert Murdoch. Lachlan Murdoch was assumed to be the future leader of the company.

Few believe that the Murdoch and Fox brand names have been tarnished. But this is the second of Rupert Murdoch's offspring to leave the company in recent years.

Elder sister to Lachlan, Elizabeth Murdoch, 37 years old, had also run many News Corp. operations, and was assumed to be a possible successor some years ago. But she and Rupert Murdoch got into a tussle over strategy concerning BSkyB, where she was the managing director. She left the company in 2001, but has not ruled out a return.

Media analysts say while Fox stations were a well-run operation, they have suffered somewhat recently because of waning local TV advertising sales--but this is something that has affected the entire TV station market. Media analysts also note that Fox stations' own programming arm has not been very successful in becoming a major training ground for shows that would make the leap to either national syndication or to Fox's own network airwaves.

As chief executive of the TV group, Lachlan did execute the company's duopoly strategy in the nine markets where the company owns and operates two stations.