Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch has grown the giant mammoth of a media company "The News Corporation" into one of the largest and most influential media groups in the world from a small town newspaper in Australia. Murdoch wields considerable power with his global media company and is often wooed by politicians to persuade him to favorably cover their campaigns. His empire covers television, filmed entertainment, cable network programming, book publishing, direct broadcast satellite television, magazines and newspapers operating in the United States, Australia, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Asia and the Pacific Basin.

Murdoch was born in Melbourne, Victoria - Australia on the 11th of March, 1931. He grew up in Australia and studied at the Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He then worked briefly at the "Daily Express" newspaper before taking the reigns from his father's (Sir Keith Murdoch) newspaper in Adelaide Australia called "the Adelaide News".

The Adelaide News was Rupert Murdochs base to launch into the global media empire he went on to create. He made the small town newspaper profitable enough to move from Adelaide and begin his continual quest to acquire companies, grow them or create them.
Murdoch acquired some of the most popular and widely read newspapers in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. His rise through the ranks often caused controversy and outrage because of his ruthless management style and desire to succeed. In an attempt to flush out the corruption, waste, overstaffing and theft that flourished in his London based operations Murdoch had to confront the workers union. His actions caused many protests and petitions against Murdoch and his companies (one magazine article gave him the nick name of "The Dirty Digger") but his commitment to cut costs and increase profits did eventually win out in the end.

"I'm a catalyst for change … You can't be an outsider and be successful over 30 years without leaving a certain amount of scar tissue around the place." Rupert Murdoch

In an effort to expand his television interests further in the United States Rupert Murdoch became an American citizen in 1985. Throughout the 80s his Australian listed Media company the News Corporation continued to grow rapidly, acquiring interests in newspapers, magazine, book publishing, television stations, film and more.

The rapid growth of News Corporation and expansion into satellite TV also brought massive loans. During a downturn in the early 90s Murdoch and his media empire had difficulty paying its bills. Many of his American magazine interests were sold to pay off some of the loans and things eventually turned around for Murdoch.

"The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow." Rupert Murdoch

The slight pause in growth in the early 90s quickly ended and the media mogul continued his path of of acquisition and growth. The company owns some of the largest and most popular brands in many areas of the media industry including:
20th Century Fox, Fox Television Studios, DIRECTV, Harper Collins Publishers, Festival Records and the New York Post.

See a listing of more News Corporation Companies here..

Rupert Murdoch divorced his wife (and the mother to four of his children) Anna Murdoch in 1998 after more than 30 years of marriage. He then went on to marry a member of his staff in the Asian operations (Star TV) of News Corporation. Wendi Deng is roughly 40 years younger than Murdoch. Two of his sons Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch did work in their father's company and hold important positions, until Lachlan left.

The effect that Rupert Murdoch has had on the media and entertainment industry is massive. Along the way he created an empire that has gone from strength to strength, securing positions in every important media and country. Murdoch continues to push his News Corporation company forward and is leading the way into the lucrative Chinese market, that has up until now, been out of reach for Western media companies. With his great success and power he has also created a lot of critics, but Murdoch continues to brush them all aside and is happily living his life with his young wife and is continuing to grow his global media empire.

In 2007 at the age of 76, Rupert Murdoch has showed that he is still open to change. The media mogul released an ambitious plan to to tackle the problems of global warming by making his global corporation carbon neutral. He told 47,000 employees that they will not only cut their energy use, but that the word on climate change will also be put out through his many media outlets.

Rupert Murdoch Talks At A Presentation Hosted By Young And Rubican

Rupert Murdoch talks at a presentation hosted By Young And Rubican at the 55th annual Cannes Advertising Festival on June 19, 2008 in Cannes, France. The festival is the largest gathering of worldwide advertising professionals and advertisers and is the most prestigious annual advertising award.

TIME's 100 Most Influential People Gala

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch arrives at TIME's 100 Most Influential People Gala at Frederick P. Rose Hall on May 08, 2008 in New York City