The Biography of Rupert Murdoch : Net Worth, Career and Business
Rupert Murdoch is an Australian- born American businessman and media
entrepreneur. He is commonly known for founding News Corp where he served as
the former CEO but retains his position as executive chairman from 2013 to date.
He also served as the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox
(2015-2019). He is an active board member of the News Corps and Fox
Corporation.
Murdoch’s
father, Sir Keith Murdock was a war correspondent who had his own newspaper
publishing firm and rose to a senior executive at The Herald and Weekly Times
publishing company. After his death, Murdoch’s late father left his two
newspaper publishing outfits, the Sunday Mail and the News, to Murdoch as an
inheritance. Rather than continue with his father’s business legacy, Murdoch
founded his own company, News Limited. In 1979, he founded News Corporation
Ltd, a global media conglomerate also known as News Corp. As the years rolled
by, starting from the 1950s, Murdoch began expanding his business by buying off
newspapers all over Australia first, then New Zealand before expanding to other
countries like the United Kingdom and U.S. Murdoch’s company had acquired a lot
of companies that by 2000 its subsidiary companies count was 800 in over 50
countries.
Net worth
$17.6B as of May 27, 2020.
Early life and education
Keith Rupert Murdoch was born on March 11,
1931, to Dame Elisabeth and Sir Keith Murdoch in Melbourne, Australia. He
attended Worcester College, Oxford where he studied Philosophy, Politics, and
Economy. His keen interest in politics began at an early age, and he became
part of the Oxford University Labour Party by the time he got into school. He
both served as the Secretary of the party and manager of the Oxford Student
Publications Limited.
How he built his business empire
After
graduating from Worcester College, Murdoch worked at Lord Beaverbrook’s London
Daily Express as a sub-editor for a short while before returning to Australia
to inherit his father’s business in 1954. Working at the Daily Express exposed
Murdoch to sensationalist journalism which he would later capitalize on in his
early media business life.
While
Running the News of the World and The Sun (both London based newspapers),
Murdoch devised a new way of topping the publishing market. Murdoch’s strategy
for doing business in the media world and promoting circulation was through the
use of captivating human-interest stories such as sex, scandal, and crime. The
notorious and scandalous stories seemed to circulate faster compared to daily
news, and Murdoch went all out to take advantage of it. His published papers
were centered on sex and scandal, unlike his father who focused on war reports
and news. Gradually, his newspapers began accommodating sports sections.
He gained
entrance into the American market through his purchase of the San Antonio News
and another San Antonio, Texas daily. Using his devised strategy, Murdoch
converted the San Antonio News into yet another sex and scandal paper. In 1974,
he introduced The Star, a national weekly sensationalist tabloid, and two years
later he purchased New York Post, an afternoon tabloid, selling both tabloids
in the late 1980s only to buy back the New York Post in 1993.
By the early
1980s, Murdoch expanded his business operations beyond newspaper print to book
publishing, radio, television, and record companies. In 1985, Murdoch
voluntarily dropped his Australian citizenship in exchange for American
citizenship by naturalization. This was to enable him to easily operate his
business in America. Later that year, through his holding company News
Corporation, Murdoch acquired Twentieth Century- Fox Film Corporation (later
known as 20th Century Fox) and acquired HarperCollins two years
later. He also acquired The Wall Street Journal in 2007 for $5 billion. By
purchasing companies from Metromedia Inc., Murdoch was able to acquire other
American televisions stations which were all incorporated into one body called
Fox Inc.
In the early
1990s, Murdoch created BSkyB, a British broadcaster after acquiring the
company, Sky television. The company had suffered losses from the inception.
Murdoch stepped in by striking a deal between Sky and its rival television
network British Satellite Broadcasting, thereby, creating the BSkyB (later
renamed Sky News) which eventually expanded its operations to American and
Asian networks. Murdoch owned about 39% of the BSkyB network but was prevented
from claiming the rest of the stake when he showed interest due to uncertainty
of market dominance and censorship issues. A compromise was made on the grounds
that Murdoch would have to sell Sky News to Walt Disney; it was a deal that
never actualized as Comcast, a rival company eventually earned control of BSkyB
with Murdoch selling off his shares to the company.
As part of
his global expansion plans, Murdoch purchased a Hong-Kong based Asian
television station called Star TV in 1993, and by 1995, News Corps partnered
with MCI Communications Corporation to provide long-distance telecommunications
services. In 1996, Murdoch decided to have an official television broadcasting
news outfit and Fox News was created. Unlike his regular sex and scandal
technique, Murdoch allowed Fox News air political issues and commentary. Fox
News has since then become one of the most influential news networks. Often
times, Murdoch is still being criticized over his political views and personal
interest getting in the way of Fox News.
Due to
slight financial challenges, Murdoch had to sell off some of his companies
including Daily Racing Farm, Seventeen, and his valued New York. After
dominating much of the media, Murdoch’s next business expansion step was social
media. In 2005, he purchased Intermix Media which owned Myspace.com, a social
media platform. As at the time, Myspace.com had over 30 million registered
users. With a fast rise in Facebook popularity, Myspace eventually lost its
members until it was eventually sold off at a loss of $35 million in 2011.
Murdoch’s
eye for scandalous news eventually landed News Corps in a legal problem as
there were reports of phone hacking and privacy invasion of celebrities,
royalty, and politicians. This led to an immediate shutdown of The News of the
World.
Murdoch has
remained relevant in the media world as he owns a majority of the publishing
houses and media companies within America, Australia, Europe, and some parts of
Asia. In 2013, he divided his company into two parts—namely 21st Century
Fox Inc. and News Corp. to clearly define the business interest.
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