Rupert Murdoch

Lore & Background

Murdoch was born and raised in Melbourne. After his father Keith Murdoch died in 1952, Murdoch took over the running of The News, a small Adelaide newspaper owned by his father. In the 1950s and 1960s, Murdoch acquired a number of newspapers in Australia and New Zealand before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World, followed closely by The Sun. In 1974, Murdoch moved to New York City, to expand into the American market; however, he retained interests in Australia and the United Kingdom. In 1981, Murdoch bought The Times, his first British broadsheet, and, in 1985, became a naturalised American citizen, giving up his Australian citizenship, to satisfy the legal requirement for American television network ownership. In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, Murdoch consolidated his British printing operations in London, causing bitter industrial disputes. His holding company News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989), and The Wall Street Journal (2007). Murdoch formed the British broadcaster BSkyB in 1990 and, during the 1990s, expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000, Murdoch's News Corporation owned more than 800 companies in more than 50 countries, with a net worth of more than $5 billion. In July 2011, Murdoch faced allegations that his companies, including the News of the World, owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of celebrities, royalty, and public citizens. Murdoch faced police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the United States. On 21 July 2012, Murdoch resigned as a director of News International. In September 2023, Murdoch announced he would be stepping down as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. Many of Murdoch's papers and television channels have been accused of right-wing bias and misleading coverage to support his business interests and political allies, and some have linked his influence with major political developments in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. The Murdoch family was involved in a U.S. court case in which his three children—Elisabeth, Prudence, and James—challenged his bid to amend the family trust to ensure that his eldest son, Lachlan, retains control of News Corp and Fox Corp, rather than t

Reader's Guide

Murdoch studied philosophy, politics and economics in England at Worcester College, Oxford, where he kept a bust of Lenin in his rooms and came to be known as 'Red Rupert'. He was a member of the Oxford University Labour Party, stood for secretary of the Labour Club and managed Oxford Student Publications Limited, the publishing house of Cherwell. After his father's death from cancer in 1952, Murdoch's mother did charity work as the life governor of the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne and established the Murdoch Children's Research Institute; at the age of 102 (in 2011), she had 74 descendants. While his father was alive, Murdoch worked part-time at the Melbourne Herald and was groomed by his father to take over the family business. After his father's death, he began working as a sub-editor with the Daily Express for two years. Following his father's death, when he was 21, Murdoch returned from Oxford to take charge of what was left of the family business. After liquidation of his father's Herald stake to pay taxes, what was left was News Limited, which had been established in 1923. Rupert Murdoch turned its Adelaide newspaper, The News, its main asset, into a major success. He began to direct his attention to acquisition and expansion, buying the troubled Sunday Times in Perth, Western Australia (1956) and over the next few years acquiring suburban and provincial newspapers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory, including the Sydney afternoon tabloid The Daily Mirror (1960). The Economist describes Murdoch as 'inventing the modern tabloid', as he developed a pattern for his newspapers, increasing sports and scandal coverage and adopting eye-catching headlines. Murdoch's first foray outside Australia involved the purchase of a controlling interest in the New Zealand daily The Dominion. In January 1964, while touring New Zealand with friends in a rented Morris Minor after sailing across the Tasman, Murdoch read of a takeover bid for the Wellington paper by the British-based Canadian newspaper magnate Lord Thomson of Fleet. On the spur of the moment, he launched a counter-bid. A four-way battle for control ensued in which the 32-year-old Murdoch was ultimately successful. Later in 1964, Murdoch launched The Australian, Australia's first national daily newspaper, which was based first in Canberra and later in Sydney. In 1972, M

Did You Know?

• Murdoch was born on 11 March 1931 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
• He became a naturalised American citizen in 1985, giving up his Australian citizenship.
• He resigned as a director of News International on 21 July 2012.
• In September 2023, Murdoch announced he would be stepping down as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp.
• In September 2025, a settlement gave his eldest son, Lachlan, ownership of Murdoch's media empire.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"After all, we are in the entertainment business." — Rupert Murdoch "Remarks after the Hitler diaries were exposed as forgeries." — Rupert Murdoch "News — communicating news and ideas, I guess — is my passion. And giving people alternatives so that they have two papers to read (and) alternative television channels." — Rupert Murdoch "Can we change the world? No, but hell, we can all try." — Rupert Murdoch