Departure of Murdoch as Fox leader comes as conservative media landscape is increasingly fractured
The departure of Rupert Murdoch as the leader of Fox’s parent company and his News Corp. media holdings after decades at the helm is unlikely to have as much of an impact on conservative media overall as it would have a decade ago
NEW YORK — The departure of Rupert Murdoch as the leader of Fox’s parent company and his News Corp. media holdings after decades at the helm is unlikely to have as much of an impact on conservative media overall as it would have a decade ago.
That's because the landscape in general is increasingly fractured, experts said. With a growing number of digital media sources available to them, right-leaning audiences have plenty of options for getting news, opinion and entertainment.
“I think if Rupert Murdoch had stepped down in 2000 it would have had a much greater impact," said Howard Polskin, whose website The Righting.com monitors conservative media. «The conservative media landscape is just much more diverse now.”
Fox News' website had nearly 74.8 million viewers in July 2023, while the No. 2 most visited site, The Washington Examiner, had just 7.5 million and No. 3, The Epoch Times, had 6.2 million, according to TheRighting.com.
But people are turning more and more to smaller sites, podcasts and other digital products to get news. Conservative media personalities such as Tucker Carlson, who was ousted by Fox in April, Daily Wire podcaster Ben Shapiro, and talk show host and podcaster Megyn Kelly, also a former Fox host, are increasingly influential as well.
“They cast a lot of influence over right-wing media and right-wing thought,» Polskin said.
The change at the top of Fox and News Corp. comes months ahead of the 2024 presidential election where Donald Trump is favored to be the Republican
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