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| James Murdoch |
“My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions,” Murdoch said in his resignation letter, which was published as part of a company filing released Friday.
Murdoch had once been widely viewed as the top contender to one day run the family businesses, but in recent years he has been disengaging from his roles at the companies. Last year, he left as chief executive of 21st Century Fox after substantial parts of the company’s entertainment unit were sold to Walt Disney Co.
The News Corp board seat was the last formal role he held at companies controlled by his family.
Earlier this year, as wildfires raged in his family’s native Australia, James Murdoch publicly criticized coverage of climate change in News Corp’s newspapers and on Fox Corp’s Fox News.
Rupert Murdoch, 89, remains chairman of Fox and executive chairman of News Corp.
James Murdoch’s political inclinations have been at odds with others in the family empire. Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn Murdoch, also have donated over $1 million to political-action committees supporting the presidential campaign of Democratic presumptive candidate Joe Biden.
Since departing from Fox, James Murdoch had launched his own investment fund, Lupa Systems, but had remained on the News Corp board. The Murdoch family are major shareholders in both Fox Corp. and News Corp, which owns Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
News Corp also owns the New York Post, the Times of London and the Sun in the U.K. and dozens of newspapers in Australia.
The younger Murdoch personally walked away with $2.2 billion from the sale of the Fox assets.
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