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Rupert Murdoch is planning to hand over the job of chief executive at the media conglomerate 21st Century Fox to his son James, multiple people briefed on the plans said on Thursday.
几名知情人士在周四表示，鲁伯特·默多克(Rupert Murdoch)计划将传媒集团21世纪福克斯公司(21st Century Fox)首席执行官的职位让与儿子詹姆斯(James)。
James Murdoch is expected to take over as chief executive, and his 84-year-old father will remain at the company as executive chairman. Another son, Lachlan, is moving from Australia to Los Angeles to become co-executive chairman, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
詹姆斯·默多克接任首席执行官一职后，他84岁的父亲将继续留在公司，担任执行董事长的职务。据不具名的知情人士透露，老默多克的另一个儿子拉克伦(Lachlan)准备从澳大利亚移居洛杉矶，担任执行联席董事长。
The exact timing for the changes is unclear, but it is said to be part of Mr. Murdoch’s long-term succession planning with the board. The changes are expected to be discussed at a board meeting next week, one person said.
目前尚不清楚这些职务变动的确切时间，但据称，这是默多克与董事会进行的长期接班人计划的一部分。一名知情人士表示，公司将在下周的董事会议上讨论此事。
The elder Mr. Murdoch is expected to continue to provide broad strategic oversight for the company and come into the office regularly, one person said. He is not ill, and he still appears to be energized, this person added. The Murdoch family trust controls almost 40 percent of the voting shares of both 21st Century Fox and News Corporation, and Rupert Murdoch has more rights in the trust than his children.
根据一名知情人士的说法，老默多克将会继续负责公司的宏观战略，并会经常出现在办公室里。这名人士还表示，他没有生病，看起来依旧精力充沛。默多克家族的信托基金控制了21世纪福克斯公司和新闻集团(News Corporation)将近40%拥有表决权的股份，而鲁伯特·默多克在该基金中比他的子女拥有更多的权利。
As part of the reorganization, Chase Carey will step down from his role as chief operating officer at Fox and work as an adviser to the company. Mr. Carey, who has worked as the second-highest executive at Fox since 2009 and is widely respected on Wall Street, played an integral role in the succession plans, one person said. To ease the transition, he built flexibility into his contract with Fox last year when he agreed to a two-year contract extension through June 30, 2016.
作为重组计划的一部分，蔡斯· 凯里(Chase Carey)将卸任福克斯首席运营官，改任公司的顾问。凯里从2009年开始担任福克斯的二把手，备受华尔街推崇。一名知情人士表示，他在接班人计划中扮演不可或缺的角色。为了过渡顺利，去年与福克斯签订续约两年至2016年6月30日的合同时，他在其中融入了灵活性。
People with knowledge of the family say that James and Lachlan Murdoch have a good relationship. But while the move appears to signal that James will take control of the company, one person knowledgeable about the family dynamics, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the announcement had not completely clarified the situation. The person said that tension could still arise over which of them would truly succeed their father, and even perhaps which will end up at 21st Century Fox, a lucrative business, and which at News Corporation, which faces the same powerful headwinds as other traditional journalism companies.
了解默多克家族的人表示，詹姆斯和哥哥拉克伦关系良好。不过，虽然接班安排似乎说明詹姆斯将执掌福克斯，但一名知晓默多克家族动向的不具名人士称，这一消息并没有完全化解不确定性。此人表示，一些问题可能仍会引发二人关系的紧张，比如兄弟当中谁能真正接替父亲？或者是谁将掌管21世纪福克斯公司，谁又将掌管新闻集团？前者利润丰厚，后者则跟其他传统新闻公司一样，面临强大的阻力。
Thursday’s developments do not directly concern News Corp., the other half of the Murdoch empire, which owns The Wall Street Journal and a portfolio of British newspapers. The two companies separated in 2013. But the elevation of James Murdoch, 42, will most likely raise concerns that when his father finally steps aside completely, the print businesses may come under more skeptical scrutiny.
周四的进展没有直接涉及新闻集团。拥有《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)和一系列英国报刊的新闻集团是默多克帝国的另一半。这两家公司于2013年拆分。不过，42岁的詹姆斯·默多克的高升很可能会引发担忧：当他的父亲最终完全退出的时候，公司的传统报刊业务可能会受到更多怀疑性的审视。
The moves, first reported on Thursday by CNBC, were largely expected on Wall Street, and some analysts called James Murdoch an experienced executive who has vision for where the fast-changing world of media is headed. “James didn’t just graduate from high school,” said David Bank, a media analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “He is a pretty seasoned global media executive. His strength comes out in exactly the environment we face today and exactly the changes that we face in the ecosystem.”
CNBC于周四首先爆出了相关新闻。这些举动大体上在华尔街的意料之中。一些分析人士称詹姆斯·默多克是一名经验丰富的高管，对快速变化的媒体领域的发展趋势有着自己的见解。“詹姆斯不是刚从高中毕业的学生，”加拿大皇家银行资本市场(RBC Capital Markets)的媒体分析师戴维·班克(David Bank)说。“他是一名相当老练的全球媒体高管。 在我们今天面临的环境及我们在这个生态系统面临的变革中，他的优势恰恰能显现出来。”
No imminent changes are expected at Fox News, which is a big revenue driver and whose chief, Roger Ailes, has in the past conflicted with Lachlan Murdoch. Mr. Ailes, president of Fox News, will continue to report to Rupert Murdoch, one person briefed on the plans said.
福克斯新闻台(Fox News)不会立即出现人员变动。这家电视台是公司的一个重要收入来源，其负责人罗杰·艾尔斯(Roger Ailes)过去曾与拉克伦·默多克发生冲突。一名知情人士表示，身为福克斯新闻台董事长的艾尔斯将继续向老默多克汇报工作。
The company, for its part, said it had nothing to announce. “The matter of succession is on the agenda at our upcoming, regularly scheduled board meeting,” Nathaniel Brown, a Fox spokesman, said in a statement.
福克斯公司本身表示没有任何消息要宣布。公司发言人纳撒尼尔·布朗(Nathaniel Brown)在声明中称，“接班一事包括在我们即将召开的定期董事会议的议程之中。”
The moves were the latest in a series of incremental steps by Mr. Murdoch to ensure that his companies — publicly traded, with a combined market capitalization of nearly $80 billion — are handed over to his children. It was a prospect that seemed remote, if not impossible, a few years ago, when James had been tainted by the phone hacking scandal that engulfed the company while he oversaw the British businesses, and Lachlan showed little interest in returning permanently from his native Australia to the corporate boardrooms of Britain and the United States.
为了确保名下的多家企业——均已上市，总市值将近800亿美元（约合5000亿元人民币）——能移交到自己的下一代手中，默多克逐步采取了一系列渐进措施，而前述举动是其中最新的一步。就在几年前，这种情形即便不是完全不可能，也可谓遥不可及。当时，分管英国业务的詹姆斯因为使公司陷入困境的电话监听丑闻而声名受损，拉克伦则显得对离开澳大利亚本土、永久地返回英国和美国的董事会没有多少兴趣。
James, in particular, seemed to have a difficult path to the top ranks of the company after being battered throughout the hacking crisis that erupted in 2011. Along with his father, he was called before Parliament to answer grueling questions and discuss embarrassing emails related to the scandal. James soon departed London for New York in an effort, those close to him said, to distance himself from the fallout and rebuild his reputation.
在2011年爆发的监听危机的整个过程中，詹姆斯受到严重打击，这令他通往公司最高层的道路显得尤为艰难。他曾与父亲一道被英国议会传唤，回答与这起丑闻相关的严厉问题，并讨论令人难堪的电子邮件。与詹姆斯关系密切的人表示，为了远离这件事的影响、重建声誉，他很快便离开伦敦，去了纽约。
Lachlan Murdoch decided in 2005 to leave his position as chief operating officer of News Corp., which at the time encompassed all of Rupert Murdoch’s holdings, after clashes with other executives. It was viewed, perhaps by all but his father, as a rejection of the leadership role for which he was being groomed.
2005年，在与其他高管发生冲突之后，拉克伦·默多克决定辞去新闻集团首席运营官的职务。当时的新闻集团囊括了鲁伯特·默多克的所有控股公司。或许在所有人——除了他父亲——看来，这件事都说明他不愿意担任领导角色，尽管他一直在被这样栽培。
But the elder Mr. Murdoch had worked over the years to bring Lachlan back to the businesses, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Last year the elder Mr. Murdoch named him nonexecutive co-chairman of News Corp. and 21st Century Fox, while elevating James to co-chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox.
不过两名知情人士称，多年来，默多克一直试图让拉克伦重返家族生意。去年，他任命拉克伦为新闻集团和21世纪福克斯公司的非执行联席董事长，詹姆斯则被任命为21世纪福克斯公司的联席首席运营官。
James Murdoch, long seen as the most likely heir to his father, dropped out of Harvard in 1995 to start an independent music label, Rawkus Records. He subsequently moved to the family business and was widely praised for turning British Sky Broadcasting, the satellite television company, into a broader communications company.
长期以来，人们一直认为詹姆斯·默多克最有可能成为父亲的接班人。1995年，他从哈佛辍学，创建了独立音乐厂牌劳库斯唱片(Rawkus Records)。随后，他开始参与家族生意，并且因为把经营卫星电视业务的英国天空广播公司(British Sky Broadcasting)变成一家涉猎更广泛的电信企业而受到了广泛赞扬。
Some raised eyebrows when, in his 30s, he was elevated to run News Corp.’s international businesses. And their misgivings seemed justified when he became embroiled in the hacking scandal.
不到四十岁的时候，他被提升为新闻集团国际业务的负责人，引发了一些不满。当他因为监听丑闻而受到牵连时，这些人的疑虑似乎得到了证实。
He appreciated his brother’s support during that scandal, two people with knowledge of their relationship said, speaking on condition of anonymity, and had encouraged Lachlan to return to the fold.
了解兄弟二人关系的两名不具名人士表示，詹姆斯对哥哥拉克伦在丑闻事件期间的支持心怀感激，一直鼓励他回来执事。
James Murdoch has long been focused on assets other than the print holdings that his father holds so dear. He encouraged Rupert Murdoch to take a small stake in Vice, a company that has grown dominant in online video. And he was often seen on 21st Century Fox’s Century City lot in California.
与父亲异常重视传统报业不同，詹姆斯·默多克一直关注的是其他资产。他鼓励鲁伯特·默多克收购了Vice的一小部分股份——这家公司已逐渐成为网络视频市场上的领头羊。人们还经常可以在21世纪福克斯公司在加州世纪城的电影工作室看到他。
Rupert and James Murdoch will be based in New York. Lachlan Murdoch will be based in Los Angeles.
默多克和詹姆斯二人将常驻纽约工作，而拉克伦则将待在洛杉矶。
