Rupert Murdoch’s family succession battle will remain confidential, judge rules

The battle for Rupert Murdoch’s media kingdom will play out behind closed doors.

The 93-year-old billionaire’s legal effort to rewrite the terms of an irrevocable family trust will remain confidential, a Nevada judge ruled Thursday. The judge rejected a petition from a coalition of major news organizations seeking to make the court proceedings public.

“A family trust like the one at issue in this case, even when it is a stockholder in publicly traded companies, is essentially a private legal arrangement, as the applicable sealing statutes recognize,” the judge from the Second Judicial District Court in Reno wrote in an 18-page decision. (Reno probate court frequently deals with family trusts and estates.)

The case has drawn intense interest from power players in the overlapping worlds of media, entertainment and politics. Murdoch is one of the most influential press barons of the modern age and his family owns prized assets such as Fox News and The Wall Street Journal. The wealthy clan’s public and private dramas inspired the HBO series “Succession.”

Murdoch reportedly wants to alter the terms of the family trust so that his eldest son, Lachlan, inherits his throne and keeps control of their sprawling business empire. But three of the mogul’s other children — James, Elisabeth and Prudence — are pushing back, insisting that all four siblings continue to receive equal voting shares.

The family feud has been shrouded in secrecy because all of the case filings are under seal. In late July, however, The New York Times published an article based on a copy of a sealed court document laying out some of the case’s key issues. NBC News has not independently seen the document or confirmed its authenticity.

The family is split partly over differences in political opinion. Lachlan Murdoch, who took over as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. last September, tends to be more aligned with his father’s conservative worldview, which the elder Murdoch has long channeled into Fox News.

The three other Murdoch siblings  are believed to be more politically moderate. James Murdoch has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential candidacy, and Federal Election Commission records show he has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic congressional candidates and Democratic state parties.

The Times, citing the document, reported that the elder Murdoch believes the “lack of consensus” among his children “would impact the strategic direction at both companies including a potential reorientation of editorial policy and content.”

He filed a petition to amend the trust, seeking to “consolidate decision-making power in Lachlan’s hands and give him permanent, exclusive control.”

Nevada’s probate commissioner ruled in June that Rupert Murdoch could alter the irrevocable trust if he was able to demonstrate he was acting in good faith, for the sole benefit of his heirs, according to a copy of the 48-page decision cited by The Times. (He has two other children, both in their early 20s, from his third of five marriages.)

In the lead-up to the trial, six news companies — The Associated Press, CNN, National Public Radio, The New York Times, Reuters and The Washington Post — banded together seeking access to the proceedings and records, arguing in part that “the fate of the Murdoch Family’s enormous fortune and vast media empire is a matter of immense public interest.” 

But the judge wrote in his decision Thursday that “the court cannot conclude that the public’s right to this information, which by statute or tradition is ‘confidential’ in nature, is outweighed by the statutory rights of the parties to keep it confidential.”

The media coalition behind the petition is reviewing its options, a spokesman for The Times confirmed.

In the ruling, the judge appeared to rebut the suggestion that “nothing in the case is available to any member of the public.” He noted that a court webpage displays information such as the case name, the case number and an “index” of all documents filed in the case.