Murdoch taps New York City education official as his chief of staff
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The director of communications for the New York City Department of Education has been tapped by News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch as the media mogul’s chief of staff.
Natalie Ravitz will join News Corp. in about two weeks and report directly to Murdoch. Ravitz has close ties to Joel Klein, the former chief of education for New York City who joined News Corp. in 2010 as executive vice president and is a member of Murdoch’s Office of the Chairman.
In an internal email to his staff, Murdoch said, Ravitz would help him ‘prioritize my commitments to align with key News Corp. initiatives.’
The announcement comes just one day after News Corp. announced that Teri Everett, the head of corporate communications for News Corp., was resigning.
Everett’s role is being filled by Julie Henderson, who had overseen West Coast communications for the media giant and is close to News Corp. president and chief operating officer Chase Carey. While Carey is based in New York, Henderson will split her time between Los Angeles and New York.
The appointment of Ravitz to a key post in Murdoch’s inner circle shows the growing clout that Klein carries inside the corridors of the media company. Although Klein was hired to oversee News Corp.’s efforts to enter the education business, Murdoch has come to rely on his counsel on other matters, including the phone hacking scandal at News Corp.’s British newspaper division.
Before running the New York City public school system, Klein served as antitrust chief at the Justice Department and was previously chief executive of Bertelsmann Inc. Last year, Lon Jacobs, News Corp.’s longtime general counsel, left after bumping up against Klein. Earlier this month, News Corp. named Gerson Zweifach, a partner at the white-shoe law firm of Williams & Connolly, its new top lawyer.
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-- Joe Flint
