Murdoch thrills to 'fantastic weather' in L.A., where shareholders will seek to dethrone him
Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks.
12:29 pm Oct. 16, 2012
The Lineup collects the media stories, big and small, that are on our radar each day.
As News Corp. stockholders gather in Los Angeles today for their annual meeting, Rupert Murdoch is facing renewed calls to step down from his perch as chairman as a result of the phone-hacking scandal that is still wreaking havoc on the beleagured company.
Bloomberg's Edmund Lee reports:
Investors have mounted a campaign to separate the chairman and CEO roles -- both held by Murdoch -- to increase accountability. They’re pushing shareholders to vote for the proposal at today’s annual meeting at Fox Studios in Los Angeles.
While efforts to split the two jobs were unsuccessful at last year’s meeting and aren’t limited to News Corp. (NWSA), Murdoch’s handling of the scandal gives fresh ammunition to proponents such as Christian Brothers Investment Services Inc.
That latter group is a group that invests endowment money for Catholic organizations; they're joined by two major California public-pension funds in the effort to oust Murdoch. Together they and several smaller supporting shareholders control upwards of 15 million shares of Class A News Corp. stock.
But The New York Times' David Carr suggests that "efforts to use the scandal to loosen the Murdochs’ grip on the company will likely fail for several reasons."
From Carr's analysis on Media Decoder today:
First and foremost, Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, has delivered financial results for shareholders, with shares rising 44 percent in the last year, in part due to a $5 billion stock buyback that Mr. Murdoch once resisted. And even if the business results weren’t remarkable, there isn’t a great deal that unhappy shareholders could do about it. Even though the family owns 13 percent of the equity in the company, it controls 40 percent of the voting stock.
For his part, Murdoch doesn't seem too flustered:
Back in LA. fantastic weather. No wonder people love it here.
— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) October 15, 2012
The shareholders meeting is set to begin at 10 a.m. Pacific time (that's 1 p.m. for New Yorkers). You can listen to a live webcast here.
Meanwhile, The Guardian has the details on Rebekah Brooks' massive News Corp. exit package. And "private emails between David Cameron and the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks have been withheld from the Leveson Inquiry after the Prime Minister sought personal legal advice," reports The Independent.
On Capital...
Bernie Kerik lost a lot of weight in prison
With China and Brazil, the 'Times' embarks on a global expansion effort
In other news...
New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan: “I’m in the newsroom, so if people have a gripe with me, they can find me very easily." [Poynter]
With traffic surging, Upworthy has raised $4 million in angel funding. [AllThingsD]
CBS chief Les Moonves has extended his contract to 2017. [NYT/Media Decoder]
Why didn't The Wall Street Journal run with Hillary Clinton's Benghazi "responsibility" comment when it had it exclusively before everyone else did? [The Huffington Post]
Layoffs hit The Weather Channel today as part of a company restructuring. [TV Newser]
