Update: The Murdoch Media Empire and the Real-Life Succession Drama

Published September 23, 2025 at 8:51 AM MDT

Much ink has been spilled about media mogul Rupert Murdoch's family, but Atlantic reporter McKay Coppins got the chance to get the stories from the inside. In light of a recent ruling that put an end to the battle for succession, we checked in with Coppins to see what it means for the family — and for their media empire.

Earlier this year, The Atlantic published a profile of Rupert Murdoch, James. One of the strangest revelations to come out of the piece was that while James couldn’t stomach HBO’s “Succession,” his siblings were kind of obsessed with it. They spent lots of time speculating about who might be leaking information to the prestige drama’s writers, which was loosely based on their family.

Now that Murdoch has settled with his children — and seems to have locked in his conservative legacy — Coppins shares with us what he learned spending time with one of the Murdoch family scions, and what the future holds now.

GUEST —

McKay Coppins | Staff writer at The Atlantic. His story, “Growing Up Murdoch,” appears in the April edition of the magazine. You can read it here.

Original Airdate: May 21, 2025; updated airdate: Sept. 24, 2025.