Rupert Murdoch

Keith Murdoch was a war correspondent who became a newspaper magnate, chairman of the Herald and Weekly Times and owner of two Adelaide papers, and he groomed his second child to take over. Rupert worked part-time at the Melbourne Herald while his father lived, co-edited two journals at Geelong Grammar, and went up to Worcester College, Oxford, to read philosophy, politics and economics. He kept a bust of Lenin in his rooms, joined the university Labour Party, stood for secretary of the Labour Club, and was known as Red Rupert. His father died of cancer in 1952. The Herald stake had to be liquidated to pay the tax bill, and what came down to the 21-year-old was News Limited and one Adelaide afternoon paper.

He made The News work and then never stopped buying. Perth in 1956, Sydney tabloids through the 1960s, The Australian founded in 1964 as the country's first national daily, then Britain: the News of the World in 1968 and The Sun in 1969, with which The Economist credits him for inventing the modern tabloid. The New York Post followed in 1976. On September 4, 1985 he took American citizenship because only citizens could own American television stations, and the next year he launched the Fox Broadcasting Company. In 1986 he moved his London printing to a new plant at Wapping overnight and dismissed 6,000 striking print workers, which produced a year of street fighting and broke the British print unions. Fox News opened in 1996.

In July 2011 it emerged that his News of the World had hacked the voicemail of Milly Dowler, a murdered 13-year-old. He closed the 168-year-old paper, met the Dowler family in London to apologize in person, and ran full-page apologies across the British press. Before the Commons committee on 19 July he called it the most humble day of his life, then argued that the News of the World was one percent of a company employing 53,000 people and that he was not ultimately responsible for it. He said he had not considered resigning. Twelve years later Fox News paid Dominion Voting Systems 787.5 million dollars in April 2023 rather than take to a jury its coverage of the 2020 election.

He gave up the chairmanships of Fox Corporation and News Corp in September 2023 and handed both to Lachlan. That should have closed it. Instead he went to a Nevada court in December 2023 to break his own irrevocable family trust and lock his eldest son in permanently, and in December 2024 Commissioner Edmund Gorman Jr. ruled against him in 96 pages, calling the plan a carefully crafted charade. The settlement came in September 2025: Lachlan holds control until at least 2050, and James, Elisabeth and Prudence took a reported 1.1 billion dollars each and surrendered their votes. He turned 95 in March 2026 and still sits on both boards. Nothing about his reputation is settled.

Rupert Murdoch's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• The Australian company
  The country's first national daily newspaper 1964
• The Sun company
  Bought in 1969 and remade into the template for the modern tabloid 1969
• The Wapping plant building
  The overnight move that broke Britain's print unions 1986
• Fox Broadcasting Company company
  The fourth American network 1986
• Fox News Channel company
  Roger Ailes built it — Murdoch paid for it 1996

• 1952 aged ~21 His father dies and he leaves Oxford to run what is left The Herald stake went to pay tax. He kept News Limited and The News.
• 1964 aged ~33 Founds The Australian The same year he won a four-way fight for the Wellington Dominion at 32.
• 1969 aged ~38 Buys The Sun He had taken the News of the World the year before.
• 1976 aged ~45 Buys the New York Post
• September 4, 1985 aged 54 Becomes an American citizen Only citizens could own American television stations.
• 1986 aged ~55 Moves printing to Wapping and dismisses 6,000 striking workers A year of street battles followed and the print unions did not recover.
• July 19, 2011 aged 80 Tells a Commons committee it is the most humble day of his life He had closed the News of the World days earlier over the Milly Dowler hacking.
• April 2023 aged 92 Fox settles with Dominion Voting Systems for 787.5 million dollars He handed the chairmanships to Lachlan that September.
• September 2025 aged 94 The family trust fight settles in Lachlan's favor James, Elisabeth and Prudence each took a reported 1.1 billion dollars and gave up their votes.

• Roger Ailes 1940–2017
  Television executive who created Fox News and transformed partisan cable news and conservative politics. hired to build Fox News
• William Randolph Hearst 1863–1951
  Publisher whose sensational newspapers and national media empire wielded immense cultural and political power. predecessor in the trade
• Donald Trump b. 1946
  Businessman, media personality, and 45th and 47th president whose populist movement transformed American politics. covered and courted
• Ronald Reagan 1911–2004
  40th president whose conservative domestic program and assertive Cold War strategy reshaped American politics. ally in the 1980s
• Ted Turner 1938–2026
  Media mogul who donated a billion dollars to the United Nations Foundation and championed environmental causes. rival in cable news