BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
24 Feb 2009

This has to be one of the best lines I’ve read in a while, from SAI’s Nicholas Carlson’s piece on succession planning at News Corp.

Know what happens when a boxing referee slips between the ropes and out of the ring in the middle of the match?

A hint: The brawlers don’t suddenly stop throwing punches.

News Corp. is indeed a sprawling empire, check out the numerous aspirants to the title:

# Fox News boss Roger Ailes “would kill anybody” says our source. “He’s the Dick Cheney of News Corp.” In the past, he’s said if he were younger he would want to take on Hollywood. But he’s happy printing money where he is.

# Co-chairman-CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment Jim Gianopulos is a “street fighter, ruthless.” He’s “Rupert’s kind of guy. He runs through walls.” He’s probably News Corp’s top business guy in films. He doesn’t care about TV.

# President, Entertainment for the Fox Broadcasting Company Peter Liguori will probably be the odd man out.

# Dana Waldman, co-president 20th Century Fox Television, is “shrewd and tough in creative.”

# Chair of Fox Sports David Hill is a long-time Rupert soldier. But the old Aussie probably won’t end up doing anything new.

# Rupert’s son James Murdoch reminds people of his dad, says our source. He asks good questions, has no ego (well, there’s one difference), and is a great listener. “He has no pretensions.” Because of the obvious nepotism, people questioned his merit when he took over Sky in Europe, but the internal consensus is that he did a good job there. “He did Sky and now he’s learning the rest of the world. You have to respect that.”

# Rupert’s other son, Lachlan, is not considered a player, however. A “doofus.” He’s a “great guy to go drinking with,” but when he went up against Roger Ailes in a few political battles early in his career, “Roger tried to kill him. It was like Trevor Berbick versus Mike Tyson.”

# Watch Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi when Rupe goes off to that big newsroom in the sky, but not yet, says our insider. She’s still enjoying going to parties and traveling all over the world for now. But “make no mistake, she’s ambitious.”

# MySpace CEO Chris Dewolfe’s not to be underestimated, but “the bloom is off the rose.” Rupert doesn’t like two things: Getting beat and seeing execs in the press. Facebook is beating MySpace and profiles and interviews are everywhere all the time. He went to Davos this year. A bigger role in operations is not in the cards.

Now call me crazy, but while Rupert Murdoch is almost 78 (he was born March 11 1931) and his father passed away at 67, his mother is nearly 90, so methinks Mr. Murdoch will actually outlast all of these men and women, and then some.

Disclaimer: News Corp. bought IGN, which bought my old company where I was a partner and minority shareholder. I could have stuck around at FIM and had a decent corporate career, but I left to start WatchMojo.com. Noteworthy in all of this is that News Corp. sued us in 2006, claiming I violated my non-compete… but I fought back, represented myself in court and won the trial… We now have a distribution deal with MySpace TV.

But… reading Carlson’s post, it reminds me why I got the hell out of corporate life: the politics, the backwardness of fiefdoms and turf battles. Check out this WatchMojo.com video which outlines the company’s past and how the various units came to be: