Report: With Ailes Missing, Fox News Drifting

According to four high-placed Fox sources, Rupert Murdoch is upping his presence at Fox while Roger Ailes has become less visible to anchors and producers, signaling a shift that marks a new chapter in the network’s history.

According to New York magazine story, the most visible change is that, since June, Murdoch has been attending Ailes’s daily executive meeting held on the second floor of Fox headquarters. The secretive afternoon gathering in Ailes’s conference room is attended by about a half-dozen of the network’s most senior lieutenants. It’s where some of the most sensitive decisions about running the channel are discussed.

Murdoch has so far been a quiet observer, but his presence at the table is striking to Fox executives.

Some interpret it as a sign that the 84-year-old, newly engaged Australian mogul is preparing for a future where the 75-year-old Ailes is no longer in the picture.

News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch tweeted a message of support to Fox News chief Roger Ailes on Thursday as a report surfaced suggesting Murdoch was taking more control of Fox News.

Another big debate tonight. Thanks Roger Ailes again for another great production. Keep 'em coming better and better than competitors.

— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) January 14, 2016

It’s one of the most significant decisions Wall Street will be watching: Fox is valued at north of $15 billion and generates as much as 30 percent of Murdoch’s profits. “He wants a smooth handover,” one executive told me. Right now the two leading internal candidates are Michael Clemente, who’s in charge of news, and Bill Shine, who oversees Fox Business.

New York magazine reports he succession question seems to be taking on new urgency after three sources say Ailes threatened to quit this summer when Murdoch elevated his sons, Lachlan and James, to take over the media empire. After their promotions were announced, Ailes put out his own statement on Fox Business that declared he would continue reporting directly to Rupert. Eventually, an uneasy accord was reached: Rupert gave Ailes a new contract, but Fox issued a follow-up press release clarifying that Ailes would report to Rupert as well as Lachlan and James.

Meanwhile, Fox hosts and producers tell me Ailes has been a somewhat diminished force at the network. In 2014, he took an extended leave of absence after a health scare. He still has trouble walking and rarely ventures out of his executive suite. A friend who ran into Ailes in Palm Beach over the holidays remarked that he was using a walker. “He seems detached and removed,” one Fox personality tells me. “He’s not around as much,” says another friend of Ailes. “He doesn’t have as many meetings with talent.”

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