Background

Ethnicity: Rupert is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry.

Rupert Murdoch was born on March 11, 1931, in Melbourne, Australia. He is the son of Sir Keith Murdoch and Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. His father was a celebrated World War I reporter who later became chief executive of the leading Melbourne Herald newspaper group.

He and his two sisters and a brother were raised on a farm. His mother surrounded her children with classics in literature as well as music, with their living room hosting a grand piano. Rupert learned to ride horses at the age of five. His childhood has been described as ideal. Since birth, Murdoch has gone by his middle name, Rupert, the name of his maternal grandfather.

The family farm was named Cruden Farm, after the Scottish village from which both of Murdoch's parents had emigrated. The house at Cruden Farm was a stone building with colonial pillars, adorned with original paintings, a grand piano, and a library of books, situated amongst green expanses of farmland and bordered by Ghost Gum trees. His mother later described her son's childhood: "I think it was a very normal childhood, not in any way elaborate or an overindulged one. I suppose he was lucky to be brought up in attractive - you could say aesthetic - surroundings."

On 4 September 1985, Murdoch became a naturalized citizen of the United States, and renounced his Australian citizenship.

Education

Murdoch graduated from Geelong Grammar School, a prestigious Australian boarding school, in 1949 before crossing the ocean to attend Worcester College at Oxford University in England. According to one of his early biographers, Murdoch was a "a normal, red-blooded college student who had many friends, chased girls, went on the usual drinking binges, engaged in slapdash horseplay, tried at sports and never had enough money, no doubt due to his gambling. "

Career

After graduating, Murdoch's father's friend Lord Beaverbrook, publisher of the Daily Express (London), gave him work at the newspaper, where he quickly picked up Beaverbrook's flair for sensational headlines and snappy, short-sentenced prose. Meanwhile, as the elder Murdoch remained seriously ill, a few of his subordinates conspired to relieve him of his ownership of the Melbourne Herald and other newspapers. After his father's death in 1952, the young Murdoch found that Australia's enormous death taxes had taken away most of the rest of his father's holdings. When he returned to Australia in 1954 Murdoch immediately began striving to build the circulation of a small Adelaide newspaper. Other publishers regarded him as a lazy, foolish young man and treated him with contempt - even into the 2000s Murdoch was chronically underestimated by his opposition. Yet he devoted himself to the publishing business with a passion and learned the details of every aspect of newspaper production. With sensational news stories and a punchy prose style, Murdoch's smallholdings made money. He took risks by buying small newspapers that were losing money and then turning them around.

In July 1959 Murdoch bought his first television station, Channel 9 in Adelaide, calling it Southern TV. In 1960 he bought the Daily Mirror (Sydney) and its accompanying Sunday edition for $4 million. The publications quickly became notorious for bizarre and sensational headlines and stories about sex and mayhem. Perhaps in an effort to change his image as a purveyor of prurience, Murdoch established the Australian, a national newspaper that began publication in the capital of Canberra on July 14, 1964. The Australian was a serious publication featuring an in-depth discussion of social issues and government policy and won the admiration of journalists.

By 1968 Murdoch's Australian holdings were worth $50 million. He harbored resentment of the English upper class from his days in Oxford. They had made him feel like an outsider as if they regarded Australians as inferior beings, and he wanted to strike back at them. In late 1968 he learned that London's Sunday publication News of the World was available. After a battle with other potential buyers, in January 1969 he bought 40 percent of the newspaper's shares, soon increasing the amount to 49 percent and instating himself as the newspaper's chief executive officer. In June 1969 he was elected chairman of the board for the newspaper.

In October 1969 he purchased the Sun (London), which had a circulation of 600,000 but was losing $5 million per year. When he announced that he would turn the Sun from a broadsheet to a tabloid, some of the newspaper's printers said the switch could not be made because the newspaper's printing machine could not be adjusted. Murdoch climbed on top of one of the huge machines, opened a cabinet, and pulled out a bar that when placed properly would convert the machine to a printer of tabloids. This was an important lesson for observers of Murdoch: he knew everything about running his businesses, down to the nitty-gritty of everyday production. On November 17, 1969, the first tabloid version of the Sun was published. The Sun 's circulation rose to four million, and for the first of seemingly innumerable times, England's Press Council censured Murdoch for appealing to low-class readers - which were the very readers Murdoch wanted to appeal to. Further, the Sun tweaked the upper classes with tales of their infidelities, crimes, and foolishness.

Murdoch wanted to expand his holdings into the United States. He chose to begin with two small, struggling newspapers, buying the San Antonio Express, the San Antonio News, and their united Sunday paper for $18 million in 1973. He revamped the News with his sex and mayhem formula while leaving the Express relatively untouched. He then established a national American newspaper, the National Star (later just the Star), a tabloid that competed with the National Enquirer in the field of sensational, bizarre, and scarcely credible stories. Murdoch's formula came to include large photographs, big headlines, and brief stories. In 1974 Murdoch began spending most of his time in the United States.

On November 19, 1976, Murdoch bought the New York Post from Dorothy Schiff for about $50 million. He edited the Post personally for a while, then hired the Time magazine editor Edwin Bolwell to do the job. On January 7, 1977, Murdoch bought the New York Magazine Company, publisher of New York, Village Voice, and New West, in a hostile takeover. New York would thrive; Village Voice would return to its gritty antiestablishment roots after years as a tepid social-life paper; and New West would fold after losing money, although it was regarded as a great magazine, comparable to New York.

In 1978 newspaper unions went on strike at New York's Times, Daily News, and Post-production offices. Murdoch told the unions that if they returned to publishing the Post, he would later accept whatever terms they reached with the other two newspapers. Thus, the Post returned to full publication months before its rivals did. Meanwhile, Murdoch's newspapers in London were making large profits, and in February 1981 he used these profits to purchase the Times (London), creating a stir because of his existing possession of the lowbrow Sun and his status as a foreigner - he was seen as unfit to own the venerable English publication. In November 1983 he bought the Chicago Sun-Times for $90 million, creating similar worries in Chicago because the Sun-Times was considered a highbrow newspaper. Murdoch worked his usual magic, sensationalizing the Sun-Times and thereby expanding its circulation. By 1984 Murdoch's holding company News Corporation-owned 80 newspapers and magazines.

In early 1985 Murdoch bought half of Fox for $250 million, and on May 6, 1985, Twentieth Century Fox bought Metromedia's seven television stations for $2 billion. By then Murdoch's assets were worth $4.7 billion, with annual revenues of $2.6 billion - but he was borrowing heavily to expand into the American television market. In the United States, only an American citizen could hold a majority interest in a television station, which meant the Metromedia stations could not be owned by Murdoch; Australia had a similar rule. Murdoch obtained an exception in Australia, and on September 4, 1985, he became a United States citizen. The rest of his family remained Australian citizens.

In 1990 Murdoch's News Corporation was worth $19 billion, but it was $8.1 billion in debt, and most of the debt was due. Murdoch had to restructure his debts, in part by issuing new stock that diluted the percentage of shares he owned, weakening his control over the businesses. Exercising his persuasive powers to their fullest, he convinced American banks to give him extensions to 1993 to pay what he owed them. Without these extensions, he might have lost News Corporation altogether.

In 1991 the Murdoch family moved to Los Angeles. Fueled by profits from his London holdings, Murdoch quickly bought back control of his businesses. In February 1992 his personal wealth was estimated at $2.7 billion. In 1993 he took one of the most breathtaking risks of his career, buying Asia's Star Television, a satellite service that covered southern Asia from the Middle East to Japan. With the laws of many different countries involved, Murdoch would spend much of the next decade negotiating deals with various governments. By 2000 Star Television would have over 300 million subscribers.

In 1994 Murdoch dropped the BBC from Star Television amid protests that he was bowing to complaints from China's dictators, who said the BBC portrayed them badly. Murdoch's response was that he personally disliked the BBC, which was true. He regarded the BBC as an elitist organization that helped prevent the United Kingdom's society from becoming fully free and democratic.

In 1994 Fox bought the rights to broadcast National Football League games for $1.58 billion over five years, meaning that the network would lose $100 million per year. Murdoch averred, however, that his local stations would make up the $100 million in advertising revenues. In 1997 he bought Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers for $350 million, the International Family Entertainment religious cable network for $1.9 billion, Heritage Media for $1.41 billion, and 40 percent of Rainbow Media Sports Holdings for $850 million. The last of these deals gave Murdoch part ownership of the National Basketball Association's New York Knicks and the National Hockey League's New York Rangers. Murdoch planned to use his sports holdings for overseas broadcasts, noting that the Dodgers in particular had a globally recognized brand name. On September 21, 1998, Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting bought British soccer's Manchester United, the most popular sports team on the planet, for $1.5 billion.

In 2000 News Corporation was worth $38 billion, with annual sales of $14 billion. It bought Chris-Craft's 10 television stations for $5.3 billion in stock. By 2002 Murdoch owned more than 750 businesses in more than 50 countries. In December 2003 Murdoch made one of his most daring purchases when his News Corporation paid $6.8 billion for the controlling interest in DIRECTV, an American satellite-television service. This purchase would enable Murdoch to broaden the reach of his existing television services as well as to profit from the dissemination of other television services that would be required to pay him to carry their shows. For 2003 News Corporation netted $1.1 billion and grossed $17.5 billion.

News Corporation was first incorporated in Australia. In 2004 Murdoch reincorporated his company, shifting it from Australia to the United States. By that year Murdoch's 35 American television stations reached 40 percent of America's population.

With the dawn of the new century, Murdoch continued to expand News Corp's holdings to control more and more of the media people view on a daily basis. In 2005 he bought Intermix Media, owner of Myspace.com, a social networking site that had more than 30 million members. Two years later he made news with the announcement that the News Corporation was acquiring Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, for $5 billion. Myspace suffered declining membership with the rise of rival social networking site Facebook, and News Corporation sold the site in 2011 for $35 million, hundreds of millions of dollars less than its purchase price.

On June 28, 2012, News Corporation’s assets were split into two publicly traded companies, one targeted towards media, and the other towards publishing. On 28 June 2013, the split officially took place. News Corp. was renamed 21st Century Fox and now consists mainly of media outlets while new News Corp was organized to take on the publishing and Australian broadcasting assets.

In November 2014, News Corp invested $30 million in real estate site ProTiger in November 2014. Next month they acquired a financial planning website BigDecisions.com. In March 2015, News Corp invested in Indian media company VCCircle. On July 25, 2014, 21st Century Fox informed about the sale of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland to BSkyB for $9 billion.

In June 2015, news broke that Murdoch would be handing over the leadership of 21st Century Fox to his son James. Murdoch would remain with the organization as executive co-chairman, sharing the role with his oldest son, Lachlan. In July 2016, Roger Ailes, chairman, and CEO of Fox News and the Fox Television Stations Group resigned due to a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Fox television host Gretchen Carlson. Murdoch announced he would assume Ailes's role temporarily.

Amid the restructuring of 21st Century Fox, the company engaged in talks with Walt Disney over the sale of its properties. While discussions were said to have ended by November 2017, they reportedly renewed within a few weeks, with Fox considering offers for its movie and cable networks and international divisions. In mid-December, terms of an agreement were reached in which Disney would purchase most of 21st Century Fox in an all-stock transaction valued at around $52.4 billion. Murdoch, who retained control of Fox News, the Fox broadcast network, and the FS1 sports cable channel, said he would spin those assets into a newly listed company.

While still awaiting approval of his massive deal with Disney, Murdoch sought to increase 21st Century Fox's stake in the United Kingdom-based Sky News. However, that transaction faced a roadblock from politicians and regulators over concerns about 21st Century Fox's monopoly on the British news market, despite the company's insistence that Sky News would retain editorial independence.

Achievements

• 

  Rupert Murdoch is a business magnate and talented entrepreneur whose company controls more than 800 media companies. Rupert Murdoch's life story shows that all his success he achieved thanks to his persistence, hard work, and, of course, thanks to his quick accumulation of assets in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States markets.
  
  Rupert Murdoch is the founder and head of News Corporation, a global media conglomerate. He has also created Fox Broadcasting Company. Murdoch as a businessman has acquired several large companies, but his most significant business decision was to establish the News Corporation. Under the banner, he has been able to gain access to other big names in the media industry. Within twenty years of existence, the firm accumulated a wealth of $5 million.
  
  According to Forbes' real-time list of world's billionaires, Murdoch is the 72nd richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$17.2 billion as of June 2020. In 1984, Rupert was honored with the Companion of the Order of Australia, by the nation's government.

Religion

Rupert Murdoch is a Christian.

Politics

At the beginning of his career, Murdoch was known as Red Murdoch for his socialist views. Later he changed his thinking about socialism, which he saw as a poison embodied in government regulatory agencies. Murdoch had come to be regarded by many as an extreme right-wing ideologue.

Murdoch is a generous political donor, who gives primarily to Republican candidates and causes. His lifetime giving exceeds $300,000. Recipients include John S. McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles E. Schumer, Theodore F. Stevens, Republican National Committee, Altria Group Political Action Committee, and National Republican Congressional Committee. In 2010, his News Corporation donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association. He also endorsed Donald Trump for the 2016 Presidential election.

Views

Murdoch never escaped from bitter criticism that he published vulgar newspapers that demeaned society by emphasizing sex and mayhem at the expense of reasoned discussion. It was Murdoch's view that he was an entertainer, not an informer, and that he merely sold entertainment to his readers, most of whom were lower-class workers and middle-class women. He was unapologetic about his influence on public discourse. Amid complaints that Fox slanted the news in favor of government policies that he advocated, he insisted that he saw no such slant. To his credit, his response to criticism was exclusively verbal. He did not sue or otherwise try to silence his critics, even when they accused him of being a liar or a criminal. He allowed them the same freedom to express their opinions that he wanted for his own publications.

Murdoch is a philanthropist. The Motion Picture & Television Fund announced a $20-million donation from Rupert Murdoch to support its work providing health and social services to retired entertainment-industry workers. He has granted $15,000 to the Chelsea Pensioners Appeal in memory of Margaret Thatcher, $100,000 to the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, and $1 million to charities chosen by the family of Milly Dowler, who was murdered in 2002, and whose voicemail was accessed by journalists at Murdoch’s News of the World, which also led to a $2 million settlement. He also gave $2 million to Rick Warren’s PEACE Coalition, with the aim of mobilizing 1 billion Christians to spread their faith, and is a former member of the board of directors of the libertarian Cato Institute, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

News Corp. has a handful of what they call philanthropy partners that it works with, mostly on youth and education-related causes, though one of the organizations they have partnered with helps veterans transition back to civilian life. It is also created the Murdoch Community Hero Awards, supporting select organizations that work in education and community development. The amount of support given to each organization is unknown, but the grants have funded college scholarships for disadvantaged youth, teams competing in robotics competitions, affordable housing, and temporary shelters, jobs programs, and meals, counseling, and medical treatment for homeless and at-risk youth.

Quotations: "Our underlying philosophy is that all media are one."

"I believe in competition. The way to control the market is to have competition. If someone goes bust, too bad."

"Much of what passes for quality on British television really is no more than a reflection of the values of the narrow elite which controls it and which has always thought that its tastes are synonymous with quality."

Personality

Rupert Murdoch is described as small, pudgy, short-tempered, and blunt-spoken. He is also charismatic, charming even to his enemies, and patient when criticized. A very complex man whom even his ex-wives had trouble understanding, Murdoch created a media empire that was like his personality - contradictory, large, and dominating. He liked to describe himself as colorless and boring, but numerous accounts by those who worked with him attested to his having been a stirring leader who could galvanize his employees to achievements that had seemed impossible.

Although regarded as an evil genius by some, Murdoch did not seem to have regarded himself as any sort of genius, but rather as a hardworking taker of risks. In that respect, he was extraordinary, continually bouncing back from failures to find new ventures to conquer. He loved to build businesses, and he regularly worked 16-hours days into his 70s, asserting that he would never quit, noting that his mother was in her 90s. He seemed to take the greatest pleasure in turning around failed businesses, which he did without initially overanalyzing or worrying about profit and losses. Instead, he focused on seizing opportunities, confident in his ability to build and motivate goal-oriented teams, and in his own extraordinary persuasive powers, with which he convinced employees and bankers of the vitality and potential for success of his enterprises.

Interests

• Art, yachts

• Politicians

  Donald Trump

• Writers

  Civilization by Niall Ferguson, The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century by Nicolas Berggruen, Born to Rise by Deborah Kenny, The Amateur by Edward Klein, Lincoln Unbound by Rich Lowry, Lessons of Hope by Joel Klein, Zero to One by Peter Thiel, The Way Forward by Paul Ryan, One Nation by Ben Carson

• Sport & Clubs

  baseball

Connections

Rupert Murdoch married Patricia Booker in 1956. They had a daughter, Prudence, before divorcing in 1965. He married Anna Torv in 1967, and they had four children before eventually divorcing in 1999. Only 17 days after his second divorce, Murdoch married his third wife, Wendi Deng. They have two children.

Murdoch filed for divorce from Deng in June 2013, citing that the "relationship between husband and wife had broken down irretrievably" in court papers. The news of the split came as a surprise to some, but there were some rumors of trouble in the marriage in recent years. The divorce became final in 2014.

In January 2016, Murdoch became engaged to Mick Jagger's ex, Jerry Hall. The couple reportedly began seeing each other the previous summer. They tied the knot on March 4, 2016, in London.

Father:

Sir Keith Murdoch

Father of media magnate, Rupert, Keith Murdoch was also a newspaper proprietor and journalist. By the mid-1930s Murdoch had established a national chain of media outlets based around newspapers and commercial radio stations, having already established himself as a strong supporter of the political right. Over the course of the Second World War, Murdoch's political views grew increasingly strident. He had also been a long-time patron of the arts, having sponsored exhibitions, become president of the library, museums, and gallery trustees and founding the Herald chair of fine arts at Melbourne University.

Mother:

Dame Elisabeth Joy Murdoch

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch was widely regarded as the "queen of Australia's philanthropic community." She was Patron of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Victoria, and supported 110 charitable organizations annually.

Spouse:

Jerry Hall

Rupert and Jerry were first spotted in public together, watching the All Blacks triumph in the final of the Rugby World Cup in London in October 2015.

ex-spouse:

Patricia Booker

Murdoch wed his first wife, Patricia Booker, in 1956, when he was just 25 years old. The couple remained married for 11 years, though their love ended in divorce.

Daughter:

Prudence Murdoch MacLeod

Prue MacLeod is the eldest of Rupert Murdoch’s six children, and the only one predominantly based in Australia since her half-brother Lachlan returned to live in the United States to take up the role as co-chairman of News Corp and executive chairman of 21st Century Fox.

ex-spouse:

Anna Maria Torv

Anna was working her way up at the Murdoch-owned Daily Mirror in Sydney when she decided she wanted to interview her boss, whom she found quite handsome. The couple eventually got married and stayed together until 1999.

Son:

Lachlan Keith Murdoch

After Fox was acquired by Disney in March 2019, Murdoch was named as the Chairman and CEO of the Fox Corporation.

Daughter:

Elisabeth Murdoch

Elisabeth was born in Australia, where Rupert Murdoch was raised and built a newspaper empire out of two papers he had inherited from his father. She spent most of her first five years in England, as her father bought and expanded the News of the World and the Sun.

Son:

James Murdoch

James Murdoch is a businessman who held various positions at News Corporation, a global media empire founded by his father, Rupert Murdoch. James Murdoch was the fourth of Rupert’s six children.

ex-spouse:

Wendi Deng

Wendi Deng, who interned for Rupert at the News Corp.-owned Star TV in Hong Kong, where she reportedly traveled with Murdoch throughout Asia serving as a translator. After one of their trips, Murdoch informed one of his employees that Deng would not be returning to work at Star TV.

Murdoch married Deng aboard the 155-foot yacht, Morning Glory, in New York Harbor in front of about 85 guests. Rumors of Deng’s high-profile infidelity wounded him so, and the two were divorced in 2014.

Daughter:

Grace Murdoch

Grace was born in 2001, in New York City, New York, the United States.

Daughter:

Chloe Murdoch

Chloe was born in 2003, in New York City, New York, the United States.

former friend:

Tony Blair

Murdoch was a good friend of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair. However, he cut off all ties on suspicions of his former wife having an affair with Blair

Friend:

Donald Trump

Trump and Murdoch talk to each other at least weekly, and sometimes daily.

References

• The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch
• Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires
• Rupert Murdoch: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Media Wizard
• Rupert Murdoch: A Reassessment