Rupert Murdoch

Managing Director, News Corp

Murdoch is a major shareholder and Managing Director of News Corporation, one of the world’s largest and most influential media corporations. His media empire encompasses some of Australia, America and Britain’s largest and most popular media and news publications, including BSkyB, FOX Broadcasting Company, National Geographic, and numerous newspapers.

The son of wealthy media magnate Sir Keith Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch began his career as managing director of News limited in 1953 after studying philosophy, politics, and economics at the University of Oxford. Two years later, he purchased Perth’s Sunday Times, going on to buy local newspapers in the Australian territories of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory, as well as New Zealand’s The Dominion. He launched Australia’s first daily newspaper, The Australian, in the mid-1960s, and in 1969 acquired the parent company of the United Kingdom’s News of the World newspaper group, soon adding The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times. During the 1970s, Murdoch also expanded his empire to the United States, where he purchased the San Antonio Express-News and the New York Post, and established the tabloid Star, eventually purchasing The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd.

Murdoch also branched out into broadcasting when, in 1986, he launched the Fox Broadcasting Comapny with Barry Diller. In the UK, he established the satellite television station Sky Television in 1989, which later merged with British Sky Broadcasting (1990), to become BSkyB, the dominant pay TV network in the UK. In 1993, he acquired one of Asia’s largest television networks, Star TV, and in 1995 launched the Foxtel pay TV network in Australia. Murdoch also owns Festival Mushroom Records, created when he merged Mushroom Records with Festival Records.