NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The as the leader of Fox鈥檚 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.
鈥淚 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 . "The conservative media landscape is just much more diverse now.鈥�
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 .
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, , Daily Wire podcaster Ben Shapiro, and talk show host and podcaster Megyn Kelly, also a former Fox host, are increasingly influential as well.
鈥淭hey 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 the Republican nominee.
It's possible Murdoch's successor, son Lachlan Murdoch, will try to draw back pro-Trump viewers who left Fox Media after the 2020 election, particularly because the number of cable news viewers in general is shrinking and there are many more smaller competitors 鈥渢hat can eat away at Fox鈥檚 viewership,鈥� said Nicole Hemmer, a political historian specializing in media, conservatism, and the presidency at Vanderbilt University.
While Rupert Murdoch had a complicated relationship with Trump, Fox News' audience largely admires him. But recently the former president has feuded with the network over what he considers unfriendly coverage.
鈥淭here is real dissatisfaction with Fox News, certainly by some of the far right and a significant part of the Trump base that sees Fox as too establishment, as too corporate,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd so I think that it is likely that Lachlan鈥檚 play will be trying to at least stop the bleeding or to even build Fox鈥檚 viewership by moving more to the right.鈥�
But Megan Duncan, a Virginia Tech communications professor who studies news audiences, said it's unlikely there will be big changes at Fox as long as Rupert Murdoch is still around as chairman emeritus, since he has long groomed Lachlan as his successor.
鈥淗e鈥檚 made sure that his son has been involved in the company all along,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd we know from his time in the company that (Lachlan's) views are very similar and probably he鈥檚 not going to do a 180 with the company."
Still, with smaller outlets like Newsmax on its heels, one worry for Fox might be Trump's loyalty, said Claire Atkinson, media writer for The Ankler.
鈥淚f Trump is the candidate and Trump decides to go somewhere else or swing his viewers behind other outlets, it has the potential to hurt Fox News,鈥� she said. But, she added, that that isn't likely.
鈥淭he power of television really endures,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd obviously, Fox News is the No. 1 cable news network for decades now.鈥�
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Associated Press writer Brooke Lefferts contributed to this report.
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Mae Anderson, The Associated Press
