James and Kathryn Murdoch’s $300 million-plus acquisition of New York magazine marks a new chapter, distancing their investment strategy from the shadow of family legacies.
For the staff at New York magazine, the quiet visit to the archives felt like a reprieve. The $300 million-plus purchase, executed through the Murdochs’ investment firm Lupa, carried the weight of a major corporate shift, but it landed with a specific reassurance: this was not a vanity project.
Days before the deal officially closed, Bankoff offered a candid assessment of the new owners. He spoke to the intensity of their focus. noting that their approach felt fundamentally different from an outsider looking for a new hobby. They are not people curious about a new realm; they know this space better than anyone, he said.
James Murdoch’s connection to the industry is visceral. He was four years old when his father, Rupert, purchased the magazine, and only 18 when the family sold it. During a meeting at Lupa’s downtown Manhattan headquarters on a sultry early June afternoon, the lineage was clear. James navigated the history of his family’s former portfolio—which included the San Antonio Express-News. The Star. The Village Voice. and New York—with a measured. deliberate distance. careful to avoid naming his estranged father directly. He framed it as ancient history.
When confronted with the suggestion that his career has been a calculated flight from the influence of Fox and News Corp. James pushed back. He maintains that he never stepped away from the media landscape. pointing to his ventures in India and his partnership with former Disney India and Star India executive Uday Shankar through Bodhi Tree Systems as evidence of a sustained commitment to the industry. To him, the narrative of distancing is a mischaracterization of a career that simply evolved.
The scale of James and Kathryn’s current influence is tethered to a massive financial turning point. Following Disney’s $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox in 2019. James walked away with $2 billion. while his brother Lachlan secured a $1.1 billion buyout after a courtroom battle over News Corp. That liquidity has fueled a diverse new portfolio: the couple has acquired the Tribeca Film Festival and Art Basel. and launched the Futurific Institute—a project described by a source as a riff on the world’s fair.
James Murdoch Kathryn Murdoch New York magazine Lupa media investment Uday Shankar Bodhi Tree Systems