He is Australia’s most successful business leader, but Rupert Murdoch does not shy away from the headlines
September 1915, Gallipoli, as the Allies land on the beach.
War correspondent Keith Arthur Murdoch witnesses a very different war. Writing an 8,000 word private report, describing the Gallipoli campaign as a disaster.
It was the beginning of the Murdoch anti-establishment spirit, passed down to his son, Rupert, who took a half share in a small newspaper, and built a global empire.
1940s in Melbourne, and a young Keith Rupert Murdoch forged his way at his father’s newspaper, groomed for bigger things.
In 1952, his father died of cancer, and a young 21 year old Rupert returned to Australia, to pay back taxes and take the reigns of The News in Adelaide.
There, he cut costs, journalists complained of old newspapers being used in the place of toilet paper.
At an early age, Rupert knew the importance of growth and acquisition, buying the Daily Mirror in Sydney, and inventing the modern tablod.
Being a tabloid king wasn’t enough. In 1964, Rupert launched his first national paper – The Australian.
In media, political connections help When Rupert shifted his Fleet street operations to Wapping, 6,000 staff went on strike. But the police were clearly on Rupert’s side.
In 1974, Rupert Murdoch crosses the Atlantic, ready to expand. He starts off with a supermarket tabloid, but then rescues the New York Post.
But buying a TV station proved difficult, because of laws ensuring only US citizens can own a TV licence. An easy choice for Rupert, who becomes a US citizen.
He went on a buying spree to build his own network, where he put NBC, ABC and CBS on notice.
FOX would be different.
Just like with Margaret Thatcher, Rupert became close with U.S. Republican president Ronald Reagan.
By the mid 1990s, Rupert launched his own news channel, that would go on to change US politics.
Always determined to be on the front line of media, Rupert didn’t always win.
Murdoch’s entire media empire came under fire in the phone hacking scandal, after his newspapers were accused of hacking the phones of celebrities.
Today, News Corporation and Fox are now two of the most influential media companies on the planet.