Yahoo Finance Rupert Murdoch's son James resigns from News Corp board
James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has resigned from his seat on the board of News Corporation (NWSA), citing “disagreements with certain editorial content”.
The move, cited in regulatory documents filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday, is with immediate effect.
The letter stated: “Ladies and Gentlemen: I hereby tender my resignation as a member of the Board of Directors of News Corporation (the “Company”), effective as of the date hereof.
“My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions.”
Once viewed as the likely successor to his father’s media empire, the 47-year-old had headed up 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.
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The nature of the editorial disagreements weren’t disclosed.
James Murdoch has previously criticised Fox News’ and other News Corp outlet editorial lines on climate change.
News Corp Australia’s executive chairman, Michael Miller, has previously said the company does not “deny climate change or the gravity of its threat”.
Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp and his other son and co-chairman Lachlan, issued a joint statement saying they were “grateful to James for his many years of service to the company. We wish him the very best in his future endeavours.”
News Corp owns the Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun newspapers in the UK; Dow Jones — publisher of the Wall Street Journal; the Australian and the Australian tabloids the Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun and the Courier-Mail.
