When Rupert Murdoch inherited his news empire from his father in 1952, it comprised a scrappy Adelaide afternoon tabloid paper, a pile of debt and the raw ambitions of a 21-year-old neophyte who had never run anything.

When, on Monday, Lachlan Murdoch inherited his news empire from his father – on his 54th birthday – it comprised tens of billions of dollars of assets, including Fox News – the world’s most profitable media business – big daily papers in the US, Britain and Australia, sports broadcasting, book publishing and lucrative online property websites.

Lachlan Murdoch’s inheritance, like his father Rupert’s 73 years earlier, was a messy affair.Credit:

Both inheritances, 73 years apart, were messy affairs. When Keith Murdoch died suddenly, his widow, Dame Elisabeth, was forced into bitter negotiations with her late husband’s colleagues to extract a single newspaper that became the launch pad for her son’s eventual media empire.

This week’s Murdoch baton pass was much more acrimonious – and public – because the stakes were vastly greater, financially and ideologically. Lachlan wrenched control of the two Murdoch companies, Fox Corporation and News Corp, after a venomous year-long family legal feud that ended on Monday when his three siblings, James, Elisabeth and Prudence, agreed to sell their stakes in the companies for $1.7 billion apiece.

Instead of the four siblings deciding who would take control of the empire after their 94-year-old father eventually dies, Monday’s deal hands control to Lachlan until at least 2050 (assuming Rupert........

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