Nobody looks at the voting numbers for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. For a start, looking at those numbers is hopelessly nerdy. And in any case his complete ascendancy—his ability to wield 39.7 per cent of the voting stock while only owning 13.5 per cent of the total stock–makes the results at annual meetings a complete no-brainer. At least that’s how it is pitched.

But last week’s voting numbers at the annual meeting in Los Angeles tell a different story. What they show is that Rupert Murdoch can indeed retain control of News Corp without even raising a sweat. But his children almost certainly won’t. Continue reading →

Let’s be frank. You don’t see a lot of Toffs around these days. You don’t run into them in the suburbs. Or around the shopping mall. They don’t go bowling. They’re shy creatures. I thought I saw a small one last week, but he ducked off into the shrubbery before I could be sure. Continue reading →