It’s been some years since media baron Rupert Murdoch has visited Australia but that may change over the summer. The talk in well-placed circles is that Murdoch, with wife number five Elena Zhukova in tow, is planning a visit, after failing to make a much-anticipated trip earlier this year for the 60th anniversary his The Australian newspaper.

News Corp’s New York media team did not respond to a request to confirm if the 93-year-old chairman emeritus of News and Fox Corporation would be visiting.

Murdoch, who has sold about $US48 million ($74 million) in Fox shares this month, has endured a year of highs and lows, personally and professionally. A holiday with family in Australia may provide some respite before he fortifies himself for next year, which is promising to be equally troublesome.

Rupert Murdoch outside a US court room earlier this year as he sought to change the terms of the family trust. Credit: NYT

The difficulties of the past year have included this month’s News Corp annual meeting where shareholders, led by activist investor Starboard Value, put forward a non-binding resolution to end the dual-class share structure. The structure allows Murdoch and his four eldest children, through a trust, to have a voting interest of 41 per cent in News Corp and Fox, even though they hold an economic interest of just 14 per cent.

The Starboard proposal to collapse the dual-class share structure was an advisory resolution which meant the News Corp board could ignore it, but only up to a point.

The voting results on that proposal were 35.2 per cent in favour of ending it, while 64.8 per cent were........

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