Murdoch’s Eldest Son Is Next in Line

News Corp. on Tuesday formally confirmed that Rupert Murdoch’s eldest son, Lachlan, will succeed the mogul when he eventually decides to step down.

The selection does not come as a surprise because the 26-year-old has been groomed to succeed his father for some time. Rupert Murdoch was quoted in published reports that surfaced last month in Britain as saying that Lachlan was the top choice, which he restated on Monday at a news conference in Miami regarding satellite television.

Neither Murdoch, 66, nor his son was available to comment.

News Corp. spokesman Jim Platt, in confirming the development, said that the selection stemmed from a decision made within the last few months by the three Murdoch children involved in News Corp. Murdoch has long said that he plans to pass the company down to his children.

Platt emphasized, however, that Murdoch has no plans to step down as News Corp.’s chairman and chief executive.

People who know Murdoch expect him to continue running his operations as long as he is physically able, adding that the deal-making mogul is showing no signs of giving up the reins of his global media empire. The company’s assets include the Fox Network, the 20th Century Fox film studio, as well as extensive satellite and publishing assets worldwide.

People close to Murdoch said that while his kingdom will eventually be Lachlan Murdoch’s to run, that isn’t likely to happen any time soon even if something unexpected happened to his father that would make him unable to continue working.

If that happened, they said, Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp., would likely run the company until Lachlan Murdoch is seasoned enough to take control.

“If Rupert dropped dead today, Peter would take over for the time being,” one person close to Murdoch said.

Analysts have long been troubled by the succession issue at News Corp., if for no other reason than Murdoch is so irreplaceable.

Few companies bear the imprint of a chief executive as News Corp. does. Murdoch’s risk-taking ability is credited with making the kind of daring moves, such as starting the Fox network during the 1980s amid near unanimous skepticism, that built the company into the global empire it is today. In addition, Murdoch’s force of will guided the company through near-bankruptcy when it fell into financial trouble in 1990.

Lachlan Murdoch is executive chairman of News Ltd., the company holding News Corp.’s newspaper, television and other assets in his father’s native Australia.

He is one of four Murdoch children, three of whom work in their father’s empire.

Lachlan’s older sister, Elisabeth, 29, is general manager of British Sky Broadcasting in London, the British satellite television company in which News Corp. owns a 40% piece.

Younger brother James, 25, is president of News America Digital Publishing in New York and has been active in the music business. Lachlan, Elisabeth and James are Murdoch’s children with his wife, Anna.

Murdoch’s daughter from a previous marriage, Prudence, 39, is not involved in her father’s businesses, although her husband, Alisdair MacLeod, works for Murdoch in London as general manager of Times Newspapers.