In his father's shoes

BY SDH Lachlan Murdoch is taking a page out of his daddy Rupert's book and is building his media empire, one newspaper paper at a time. According to published reports the former New York Post Publisher and deputy Chief Operating Officer of News Corp has teamed up with Australia's richest man James Packer to acquire publishing company Consolidated Media Holdings for a cool $2 billion. Is Lachlan finally pulling the curtains up on his grand comeback plan? Word is an official announcement will be made later on today.

Why did rupert murdoch unload $360 million worth of news corp shares?

-MARTY Well to give to his children of course. Some of us here wouldn't mind being a Murdoch this Christmas. What the hell are his kids, mainly the ones old enough to spend it going to do with all that money? They are getting like $60 million each. We know what we would do! and it includes a lot of booze, women, fast cars and weed. Yeah we would be on a show called "True Hollywood train wrecks" The cash pay-out follows a $600m bonanza received by the siblings in February - at the time the biggest distribution of Mr Murdoch's fortune. Proceeds from the sale of 17.5m class A shares are expected to be equally split among the children. Some could go to Mr Murdoch himself. "The sale was part of the Murdoch family's normal financial planning," a News Corp spokesman said. Pay-out for Murdoch family [FT]

New magazine from presidential son

-BY ZOE S. Jack Ford son of the late President Gerald Ford, is said to be launching a bi-weekly glossy lifestyle magazine called Mountain Time, that will be inserted into about 20 small daily newspapers in affluent ski resort towns across the West. The first issue will land just in time for stocking stuffing right before Christmas. Can't wait to see how long this one lasts. They plan to produce a bi-weekly glossy lifestyle magazine, Mountain Time, that will be inserted into about 20 small daily newspapers in affluent ski resort towns across the West, with the first issue hitting right before Christmas. The rich gets everything don't they? FORD SON IN START-UP [NYP]