The Slatest

Rupert Murdoch to Step Down as CEO of 21st Century Fox

Rupert Murdoch plans move to step down as CEO of 21st Centry Fox.

Photo by Drew Angerer-Pool/Getty Images

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch will be stepping down as the head of Twenty-First Century Fox it was reported on Thursday. The 84-year-old Australian will hand over the day-to-day running of the entertainment and news company to his 42-year-old son James Murdoch with elder son Lachlan Murdoch taking on the role of co-executive chair of the company alongside his father. The exact timing of the move remains unclear, but is expected to be ratified by the company’s board as early as next week.

“The promotion to chief executive marks a remarkable turnaround for James Murdoch, who was mired in the phone-hacking scandal as chief executive of the company’s UK newspaper group before he left to join Fox in New York in 2011,” according to the Guardian. “The wheels of this partnership were set in motion when Fox announced the brothers’ promotions—Lachlan to non-executive co-chairman of both Fox and publishing operation News Corp and James to co-chief operating officer of Fox …—in March 2014,” Reuters reports. “This will be the first time that only Murdoch family members will occupy the top three positions at the company.”

“Rupert Murdoch, who through the Murdoch Family Trust controls 39.4 percent of the voting shares at Fox, is not expected to change much of what he does day to day as chairman of both Fox and News Corp., but the change at Fox is clearly an acknowledgement that the next generation of Murdochs is ready to take its place in leading the media giant,” according to CNBC.