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Murdoch Resigns from Major Newspaper Posts

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A few weeks back, we examined a day in the tweeting life of NewsCorp Presidente, Rupert Murdoch – the notorious purveyor of conservative commentary and, recently, the subject of a widespread Parliamentary investigation into a phone-hacking scandal that has consumed the entire company. Through his tweets, he upset the Romney campaign, the Scientology community and defended his case against the Levenson Inquiry. However, it looks like he’ll have to defend his case against his own company.

The Telegraph is now reporting that the Australian Darth Vader of mainstream media will be resigning from the posts of the British newspapers The Sun, The Times and the Sunday Times. According to NewsCorp’s filings last week, Murdoch stepped down as chief of the media organizations NI Group, the Times Newspapers Holdings and News Corp Investments in the UK. He also stepped down from a few posts back here in the U.S. but the SEC has yet to disclose exactly which ones.

All of this is a result of the increasingly awkward position Parliament has left Murdoch in. As more cracks in NewsCorp were revealed, it was becoming evident that the CEO had some sort of knowledge of the illegal activities going on at News of the World, the subsidiary tabloid where the troubles all started. The dominoes soon began to fall into place: Murdoch’s son, James, resigned from News International and BSkyB while Board members were cut left and right.

Now, it’s daddy’s turn to pay.

Many speculators believe that Murdoch’s resignation is a sign that he is preparing to sell the newspaper group. The Board of Trustees at NewsCorp has already told the press that it will be splitting in half: one side being the troubled newspaper/publishing side (The New York Post, Wall Street Journal, et cetera) and the other being the film/television side (Fox News, Fox Spotlight, et cetera).

Regardless, the move is a cataclysmic shift in a scandal that embroiled the company ten times over. The phrases “Murdoch” and “resigning” in the same sentence are enough evidence to say that this is a huge deal. Now, the questions remains: what will happen to the Murdoch empire? What’s the future of the largest concentration of power in media? Will the Murdoch legacy live on or is gone for good?

One answer has already been provided for us. According to the Telegraph, Murdoch’s plan could be that he will wait for after the split to sell his newspaper share and the use the equity for a leveraged buyout of the film/television counterparts.

This proves, yet again, that Rupert will never, ever leave.