ALEX BRUMMER: Rupert Murdoch’s retirement is a signal moment

The departure of Rupert Murdoch from his two core media groups Fox in the US and News Corp is a signal moment.

There is to be no succession struggle for the time being, with eldest son Lachlan taking the helm.

But with three other siblings having voting stock in a Nevada-based family trust, an eventual challenge cannot be ruled out.

The scale of the empire is much diminished. Murdoch completed one of the deals of this century when he sold most of US entertainment empire to Disney in what was billed as a $71.3billion (£57.5billion) deal in 2019. 

It was a top-of-the-market transaction and Disney has struggled ever since to make it work amid a subsiding share price and the return of chief executive Bob Iger.

The other coup was the sale of Britain’s Sky to American cable giant Comcast for $39billion (£31.5billion) a year earlier.

Murdoch’s willingness to take brave, far reaching decisions in a fast changing world of media and communications largely went unsung. Instead, he is often cast in the media as an evil genius with too much political power.

The rump of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire will need some reshaping. The Fox Corp’s alliance with Donald Trump has cost it dearly. 

Earlier this year, it forked out $800million (£645million) in a legal battle with election equipment supplier Dominion over the network’s alleged spread of voting conspiracy theories. 

Fox news channels remain immensely popular, when rivals such as CNN are languishing.

However, so called ‘cord cutting’ is challenging the cable subscription model. The popularity of streaming services and the challenge of how to make a profitable transition is very real.

The change of leadership will also put News Corp – owner of the Sun, Times and Wall Street Journal – in the frame for change. 

The titles are all engaged in what is proving a fertile conversion from paper to digital. But the shadow of the phone hacking past of the Sun still hangs over that title. 

Newspapers are deeply embedded in the Murdoch DNA. But the transition to the next generation won’t be entirely smooth.

Generation game

A larger and more resilient economy is delivering the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt higher receipts than projected at the time of the March budget, and enabling him to build a mini war-chest. 

Main drivers are PAYE receipts and VAT both of which tell us the economy is not down and out.

Inheritance taxes (IHT), a bugbear for potential Tory voters, also are delivering for the Exchequer at £3.2billion in the April-August period, some £300million up on the comparable period of 2023. 

IHT is often not very high on the agenda of most ordinary citizens unless they are staring their maker in the eye.

It is also one of those taxes which may not be on the radar of younger Britons as they wrestle with student loans, climbing the housing ladder and all the struggles which are seen as stirring inter-generational conflict. 

This is a nonsense. The immediate offspring of the baby boomers and their grandchildren should pay close attention.

Many worry about what has become known in the US as SKI-ing, Spending the Kids Inheritance, but they might be wiser to focus on IHT. 

The accidental wealth accumulated in the residential housing market, together with some handsome pension pots, has driven a whole new cohort into inheritance tax brackets.

Indeed, in spite of all the moans about inter-generational unfairness, many offspring and grandchildren are already benefiting from accidental wealth through the established route of the bank of Mum and Dad or ‘educational’ assistance out of income.

Nevertheless, as the grim reaper arrives for the boomers, the prospect of HMRC grabbing the family nest-egg ought to be as of much concern to younger voters as the silver surfers. That is why an end to IHT or bigger reliefs could be such a vote winner.

Simon says

Profit upgrades at Next are a feature of Simon Wolfson’s cautious style of management. So the latest raised profits guidance, from £845million to £875million is not a surprise.

It also shows that in spite of the Wilko debacle, Britons are still defying the cost of living crisis and scanning their debit and credit cards.

As interesting is Wolfson’s clear-headed take on supply chains. His analysis shows that the impact of the great inflation is fading fast. Other FTSE firms, which prioritise PR guff, could learn.