By BROOKS BARNES and SYDNEY EMBERAPRIL 22, 2017
The sun was setting in New York as James Murdoch, looking confident in cream pants
and a dark blazer, stepped before 350 guests in a glass-walled concert hall and waxed poetic about his pet TV channel and its dedication to “scientific literacy.”
The event on Wednesday night was an advertising showcase for National Geographic, which Mr. Murdoch,
44, has doted on since becoming chief executive of its parent company, 21st Century Fox.
In the fall, James and Lachlan introduced additional benefits, including more paid vacation, vastly enhanced reproductive coverage for women
and “expanded coverage for our transgender colleagues.”
The brothers concluded the memo on a jaunty note: “Enjoy!”
James and Lachlan overhauled their international networks business, a collection of some 350 channels; changed
leadership at their film studio, home to the “X-Men” movies; and poured money into National Geographic.
In House of Murdoch, Sons Set About an Elaborate Overhaul -
Since taking over two years ago, James and Lachlan Murdoch seem determined to rid
the company of the old-guard culture on which their father built his empire.
Only last summer, when the former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment
suit against Mr. Ailes, did James and Lachlan, and eventually Rupert, force change.