Future of Murdoch Empire Comes Down to a Court in Nevada

Over the next few weeks, the future course of one of the most powerful media empires on the planet will depend on secret proceedings set to take place inside a domed, Beaux-Arts-style courthouse in downtown Reno, Nev.

There the most powerful person in the room will be not the builder of that empire — K. Rupert Murdoch, a man who has made and broken leaders across the globe — but a mild-mannered county probate commissioner, Edmund J. Gorman Jr., who does much of his work without fanfare in his high-desert city.

It was Mr. Gorman who several weeks ago agreed to hear evidence in a fight between Mr. Murdoch, 93, and three of his adult children that is not about financial benefits but about control over his media companies after he dies. His businesses include Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The Sun of London and a large collection of newspapers in Australia.

And next week, barring an unexpected last-minute settlement, it is Mr. Gorman who, after five days of testimony from Mr. Murdoch and his four eldest children in his hearing room, will recommend whether Mr. Murdoch should be granted his wish: to guarantee that his elder son, Lachlan, gains full control over the media dynasty after he dies.

That can happen only if Mr. Gorman allows Mr. Murdoch to change the terms of the “irrevocable” family trust he agreed to some two decades ago. Set in stone after his divorce from his second wife, Anna Murdoch Mann, the trust gives Lachlan and his three oldest siblings equal say over the controlling shares of the family’s companies upon Mr. Murdoch’s death.

The final decision in the case will have wide-ranging effects in media and politics, determining whether Fox News and the Murdochs’ other populist conservative clarions stay on their