The Murdoch family holds its breath as the future of the media empire hangs in the balance

New York
CNN
—

The fate of Rupert Murdoch’s vast media empire, including Fox News, is now in the hands of a probate commissioner in Reno, who will decide whether the 93-year-old media mogul can alter his succession plan to preserve the party’s right-wing editorial leaning. Influential outlets.

Murdoch and his eldest children headed to a Reno court to appear for evidentiary hearings in a secret trial to determine whether the 93-year-old can change the family trust he established decades ago, giving his four eldest sons an equal vote over the country’s future. His conservative media empire after his death. Murdoch wants to amend the fund so that his eldest son and hand-picked successor, Lachlan, will remain in power for decades to come.

But Murdoch’s three other children – James, Elizabeth and Prudence – oppose the change and have challenged it in court. According to the New York Times and Wall Street JournalMurdoch fears that his three other children could dilute the highly profitable right-wing trend promoted by some of his media outlets such as Fox News, which he believes will reduce the company’s value.

The legal proceedings, which took place outside public view, ended on Tuesday. Now the family members are waiting for the decision.

In the coming days or weeks, the Probate Commissioner will issue a report and recommendation on whether the Murdochs can change the family trust, according to Elise Terrell, a Las Vegas attorney who specializes in trusts and estates. The opinion will not be published publicly.

But it may take some time before that happens.

Each party will have 10 days to object to its report and recommendation, Terrell said. Any objection – which is expected in this case – will then be sent to the judge, who can rule on the case, or return it with notes for the commissioner to reconsider.

“Unfortunately, it is not possible to predict how quickly this process will occur,” Terrell said. “There’s no time frame for that.”

Under Nevada law, a judge’s final ruling can be appealed directly to the Nevada Supreme Court because the trust’s assets — which include the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and television and print outlets in Australia and the United Kingdom — are valued at more than $100 million. More than $5.43 million, Terrell said.

The high-stakes succession battle took place behind closed doors in the state of Nevada, which provides one of the most private court venues for issues such as family trust decisions, allowing parties and courts to keep cases behind closed doors to such an extreme degree that they exist by themselves and are not even published in statutes. The court.

In recent days, a coalition of news organizations, including CNN, petitioned the Nevada Supreme Court to unseal the case, arguing that “the succession would impact thousands of jobs, millions of media consumers around the world, and the American political landscape.” “.