NEW YORK (AFP) Aug 1 - Former 21st Century Fox chief executive James Murdoch, the son of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, has resigned from News Corp’s board citing clashes over editorial content.
The 47-year-old once seen as his father’s successor has been openly critical of some media coverage from publishing empire News Corp’s outlets in recent months.
According to a letter written by James Murdoch and released Friday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), his resignation was due to “disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions”.
News Corp owns the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Times and the Sun newspapers among others, but not Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News network.
Itsmedia operations have been hit by an advertising slump aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic in Australia.
In May, News Corp announced that it would stop printing more than 100 Australian regional and local newspapers, shifting to digital-only versions instead.
The group reported net profit of $23 million for the quarter from January to March, boosted by its HarperCollins book division.
James Murdoch’s decision hastens his disengagement from the family media empire, which grew from a newspaper group in Australia.