Lachlan Murdoch is still seen as well placed to take over the Murdoch global media empire despite his younger brother James's resurrection as 21st Century Fox chief executive.
The current CEO 84-year-old media magnate Rupert Murdoch is expected to next week formalise his succession plan and a timetable to hand over the reins at the company's board meeting.
It would mean president Chase Carey standing aside after six years from the day-to-day running of Fox for 42-year-old James.
While some view the decision as an anointing of James as heir, the 43-year-old Lachlan has also been promoted from a non-executive to hands-on executive co-chairman role with his father, who has not given any indication of retiring.
According to the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, James and Lachlan would run 21st Century Fox similarly to Murdoch and Carey's arrangement, with one focused on the long-term and the other the operations.
Lachlan is more familiar in Australia, where he lives and has held a series of high profile business roles outside and within News Limited before his resignation in 2005.
James's reputation was damaged when he was engulfed in the British phone hacking scandal, appearing before a 2011 public inquiry because he was running the UK newspaper business at the time.
IG market strategist Evan Lucas said he believed Lachlan was the preferred successor both in Rupert and investors' eyes.
That was despite Lachlan's past including failures such as the One.Tel telco group, loss of value in his stake in the Ten network and a long-term falling-out with his father from 2005.
"The fact that I think Rupert made such a big push to get Lachlan back (last year as non-executive chairman) is interesting," Mr Lucas told AAP.
"He left the business, went and did his own things and seems to be the one with the vision needed to take 21st Century Fox to the next level in the new future media space ... which is more fragmented and liquid with on-demand, digital and social.
"I think James's reputation unfortunately has been tarnished by the whole hacking scandal."
The announcement confirms the Murdoch family's control of the company, in an age in which media moguls have tended to be replaced by executives such as Mr Carey.
Fusion Strategy media analyst Steven Allen said while Mr Murdoch's desire to keep it a family-controlled business was no surprise, shared responsibility between siblings was not a perfect recipe for success.
"Rumours have it that they have been warring against each other in the past," he told AAP.
What it means for the Australian-focused News Corp business and its newspapers, which was separated from the TV and film-focused 21st Century Fox in a demerger two years ago, is not yet known.
News Corp's newspapers, which represent more than half of Australia's daily masthead sales, were losing money and that would come to a head and had to be addressed eventually, Mr Lucas said.
The newspapers have symbolic importance for Murdoch, who transformed the family media business from a newspaper in Adelaide to one of the world's most influential media conglomerates.
