Rupert Murdoch Story - Essay Example

RUPERT MURDOCH Author’s name Institutional affiliation Instructor: Department: City/State: Course: Date: Rupert Murdoch Introduction Keith Murdoch is an Australian born media mogul. Additionally, his father Arthur Murdoch was a well-known editor, reporter, senior executive of weekly and Herald newspaper and a reporter that covered all Australian States (Stewart 2013 56). Immediately after the demise of his father in the year 1952, he refused to be a member of his father’s company and established his own private company which went by the name, News Limited (Davies 2014 56). In this case, he had the full capacity to act as the company CEO and chairman of Media Holding Company News Corporation which is now believe d to be the second most prominent media conglomerate in the world. He is also in charge of other media successors that took over after the decline of the conglomerate like 21st century Fox and News Corp. Family contributions Murdoch was born in the year 1931 as Keith Rupert Murdoch in Melbourne; Australia. He was the son of Elisabeth Joy Greene and Sir Keith Murdoch. Additionally, Murdoch is of Irish, English and Scottish ancestry (Davies, 2014 56). All his parents are believed to be Australian born (Brendon 2012 45). His father, Keith Murdoch was acknowledged as a war correspondent but later decided to be a regional newspaper magnate owning a radio station in a mining town and two newspapers in South Australia. Murdoch decided to go by the name Rupert; a name that belonged to his maternal grandfather. Murdoch joined Geelong Grammar school where he took up the responsibility as the co-editor of Corian; the official school magazine as well as the editor of If Reviewed-the student journal (Stewart 2013 57). He also participated in co-curricular activities as a cricket player where he managed to help his Cricket national team to participate in the National Junior High competitions. Murdoch was groomed by his father to help with the family business when he worked as a part-time worker at Melbourne Herald. Additionally, he was a fun of Philosophy, Economics and Politics during his time at Worcester College in England and in the process; he became a strong supporter of the Labor Party (Stewart 2013 56). As a result, he was nominated as the labor Club secretary and helped to manage the Oxford Student Publications Limited (Davies, 2014 56). Immediately after the demise of his father, Rupert returned from Oxford to take responsibility of his father’s family business that had been set up in the year 1923 (News Limited).The company’s primary newspaper, Adelaide News was converted into a success by Rupert. In the process, Murdoch started concentrating on the expansion and acquisition of the company which made it possible to buy the Sunday Times in Western Australia in the year 1956 (Ward 2014 78).This acquisition continued with the adoption of the New South Wales provincial newspapers and Suburban, Victoria, Queensland and the Northern territory (Davies, 2014 56). Moreover, some scholarly articles portray Murdoch as the inventor of the modern tabloid owing to the fact that he established a business strategy for his newspaper which increased scandal coverage, sports coverage and adopting an eye-catching news headlines. Business dealings His fast venture outside Australia revolved around the purchase of the New Zealand daily that goes by the name The Dominion (Stewart 2013 59). Additionally, during the early months of the year 1964 while visiting New Zealand, he managed to come across a business take-over bid that revolved around the Wellington paper and he successfully launched a counter argument. Later that year, he established The Australian; the first national newspaper of Australia which was situated at Canberra and later expanded its roots to Sydney (Freedman 2015 101). Moreover, in the year 1972, he adopted the Sydney morning tabloid known as The Daily telegraph from Frank Packer-an Australian business mogul whom regretted later for selling it to Murdock. During the late 50s and early 1960s, Murdoch is believed to have acquired several newspaper avenues in New Zealand and Australia before expanding his business ventures into the UK in the year 1969.Immediately he expanded into the UK, Murdoch took control of the News of the World which was later followed by the Sun. After his exploits in the UK, he moved to United States in the year 1974 to try and capture the U.S market (Stewart 2013 59). As much as he expanded into the U.S, Rupert Murdoch’s heart and soul remained in both Britain and Australia. As a result, he purchased his first British newspaper known as The Times and in the process, he developed into a naturalized U.S citizen and stopped being an Australian Citizen in the year 1985 in order to meet the needs and requirements of U.S television rights. Keen to incorporate advanced electronic publishing technologies, he went ahead to consolidate his printing operations based in UK in Wapping which in the end resulted into bitter industrial disputes (Clarke 2015 44). Additionally, in the year 1985, his News Corporation became the owners of the twentieth Century Fox and later took over The Wall Street Journal in the early stages of 2007. Additionally, another business opportunity he grabbed was the establishment of BSkyB (British broadcaster) in the year 1990 which later grew its roots into South American and Asian networks(Davies, 2014 56).. As a result, by the beginning of the year 2000, his News Corporation was responsible for approximately over 800 news corporation companies in around fifty countries globally racking in approximately over $ 5 billion in net worth(Davies, 2014 56). One of the major problems that Murdoch business operations have encountered arose in the year 2011 when his companies faced allegations that they have been regularly hacking the phones of the Celebrities, public citizens and royalty (Stewart 2013 60). Additionally, Murdoch as the owner of the News Corporation faces government and police investigations into corruption and bribery by the government of British as well as US FBI investigations (Davies, 2014 56). This forced him to resign from his post as the chairman and CEO of the News International in the year 2015 but remained as one of its owners through the Murdoch and family trust. However, after the resignation of Ailes Roger because of several accusations of sexual harassment, Rupert was declared the Acting chairman and CEO of Fox News (Robertson 2013 12) Murdoch expanded his business dealings as far as music holdings are concerned in the year 1999 by acquiring the controlling share in Michael Gudinskis Mushroom Records (Stewart 2013 61). He later formed a merger with Festival records which resulted into amore prominent label known as the Festival Mushroom Records (FMR) (Davies, 2014 56). Additionally, both recording labels, FMR and Festival were under the management of Murdoch’s son James Murdoch for a number of years. Recommendations on how to improve Establishment of an advertisement and promotion space that will see to it that both the business staff, management and the members of the public are bale to interact with the media personalities that are working in both the 21st century Fox, The Times and other International News that are under the management of Murdoch (Davies, 2014 56). In so doing, it will ensure that the net revenues of Murdoch International news agencies improve tremendously since the members of the public will ensure that their contributions and feedback regarding the news events are met and in the process, Murdoch business agencies will be improved. Murdoch’s satellite network that is based in Britain, Sky Television went through a bad state during its early operational years (Lazere 2015 13). To deal with such situations, Murdoch’s business operations should ensure that their other business agencies and avenues are operating at extensive profits that will help curb the losses incurred by one of its channel holdings (Davies, 2014 56). Additionally, in response to the decline in the print media operations and increasing influence of journalism online, it is important for Murdoch’s business operations to engage in micropayments model that will ensure that they get some revenue from on-line news as much as such actions will receive a number of criticisms (Rickets on 2014 32). Besides, establishing a way of incorporating the culture of the host country into the so many subsidiaries that have been set up by the News Corporations will ensure that the net revenues of the corporation will help offset the annual tax bill levied on its operations (Bradshaw and Rohumaa 2013 35). Conclusion Rupert Murdoch is ranked as one of the riches individuals in the history of the United States and the 91st in the global world. Much of his success is attributed to the right family guidance and emotional support he obtained from his family and the educational background experience he received from Oxford. Additionally, knowing how to deal with disappointments and how to study the market through numerous acquisitions is believed to be one of the reasons why Rupert Murdoch was one of the most successful News Corporation around the world. Nevertheless, as much as Murdoch is known for running a successful company, his business also went through a bad state which includes the sexual harassment scandal and government investigations. However, because of the resolute and management skills of Murdoch’s, it managed to go through such spells successfully. References Bradshaw, P. and Rohumaa, L., 2013. The online journalism handbook: skills to survive and thrive in the digital age. Routledge. Brendon, P., 2012. Eminent Elizabethans: Rupert Murdoch, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher & Mick Jagger. Random House. Chadwick, A., 2013. The hybrid media system: Politics and power. Oxford University Press. Clarke, P., 2015. The Australian in Canberra, 1964–67. Media International Australia, 157(1), pp.41-48. Davies, N., 2014. Hack Attack: The Inside Story of how the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch. Macmillan. Freedman, D., 2015. Media Moguls and Elite Power. Lazere, D., 2015. Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy: the critical citizen's guide to argumentative rhetoric. Routledge. Ricketson, M., 2014. Remarkable analysis of an empire [Book Review]. Australian Journalism Review, 36(1), p.123. Robertson, G., 2013. Dreaming too loud. Random House Australia. Stewart, G., 2013. The History of the Times: The Murdoch Years. HarperCollins UK. Ward, P., 2014. Book Review: The Corporation that Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational. International Journal of Maritime History, 26(1), pp.168-170. Read More