A Murdoch Heir’s Start-and-Stop Climb to the Top

Lachlan Murdoch, shown in 2018, is to take charge of his family’s media empire later this year. Rupert Murdoch once dubbed his elder son, Lachlan, “first among equals” when discussing who might eventually succeed him at the helm of his media empire. Even with that birthright, the younger Murdoch’s road to the top of and—solidified Thursday after Rupert Murdoch said he was stepping away from executive and board duties at his two companies in mid-November—has been circuitous and far from a sure thing. It was a start-and-stop climb—interrupted by a...