James Murdoch resigns from news publisher News Corp's board

James Murdoch. Photo / AP

News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch's son James is resigning from the family-controlled publisher's board over content appearing in its newspapers, which include the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

"My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions," James Murdoch wrote on Friday (US time) in a brief letter to News Corp's board that the company made public. The resignation is effective immediately.

James is known as the more liberal Murdoch brother. His more conservative sibling, Lachlan, is the heir apparent to News Corp executive chairman Rupert and is co-chairman of News Corp. Lachlan is also executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corp, home to conservative news network Fox News, the Fox broadcast and sports networks and local TV stations.

News Corp also publishes major papers in Australia and the UK and owns the HarperCollins book publisher.

In a statement provided by a News Corp spokesman, Rupert and Lachlan said: "We're grateful to James for his many years of service to the company. We wish him the very best in his future endeavours."

James has previously criticised News Corp's editorial decisions and said he disagreed with Fox News coverage. In January, he and his wife, through a spokesperson, said they were disappointed with the denial of the link to climate change in coverage of Australia's destructive wildfires in News Corp-owned papers in Australia.

More than 280 Wall Street Journal journalists and other staffers also recently sent a letter to the paper's publisher criticising the Opinion section, saying it published inaccuracies and undermined the paper with readers and sources.

James and Lachlan had shared power at 21st Century Fox, but the sale of much of the Fox entertainment business to Disney in 2019 saw James depart as CEO.

- AP