Keith Rupert Murdoch Media Baron Of The World

Keith Rupert Murdoch was born on March 11, 1931 in Victoria, Australia to Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch. Murdoch family left for Britain in 1937. When his father passed away in 1952 he was still at college, in Oxford University.

Just before his death, his father, Keith invested heavily in newspaper companies. He wished his son Rupert Murdoch, to take up a career in journalism. He even appointed Rohan Rivet, a childhood friend and mentor of Rupert Murdoch as editor of The News. As destiny would have it, Rupert Murdoch was already working for a number of newspapers in a junior capacity. Weather he had great interest in journalism or not, it was noted that he was enthusiastic about speculation and making money. But unfortunately, at the time of his father’s death, the family was heavily in debt. His mother Elisabeth Murdoch had to sell many of her shares and property to repay, with only the family shares remaining in News Limited, South down Press and Barrier Miner, a newspaper at Broken Hill, New South Wales.

By force of circumstances, Rupert Murdoch had to take up the reins of family business in 1953. He became director of News limited. Very soon he developed great enthusiasm. He instilled great drive and energy in the staff which boosted the circulation, advertising revenue and reserves. Once he ensured the financial status of his company, he aimed at acquisition and expansion.as part of his expansion drive, he bought a sick Sunday Newspaper in Perth, Western Australia. Soon he made it a roaring success.

In 1956, he published Australia’s first and most successful weekly television magazine “T.V Week”. He also published Australia’s oldest Women’s Magazine New Idea. The publication of these two magazines ensured a steady cash flow. Then he had embarked his business frontiers, besides acquiring suburban and provincial newspapers in Australia as well as across the globe.

In 1968 he acquired the “News of the World” a popular English Newspaper in Britain. In 1969 the daily newspaper The Sun entered the market in a tabloid format. By 2006 it sold three million copies per day. Later he added to his fleet ‘The Times’, the newspaper once owned by his father’s mentor viscount Northcliffe.

In 1986 Rupert Murdoch introduced electronic production process to his newspapers in Australia, Britain and the United States. Though there was stiff opposition to this move initially, today, most newspapers around the world are following this method.

Rupert Murdoch’s expansion in the U.S began in 1973 when he purchased the San Antonio Express- News, which was soon followed by a supermarket tabloid ‘Star’. In 1976 he purchased the New York post. In 1985, due to legal constraints in acquiring American television stations, he was forced to opt for U.S citizenship. But when (1991) his Australian- based News Crop, had faced financial crunch he had to sell his American Magazine interests. 
Even his British-based satellite Network Sky Television incurred massive losses in its early years of operation. But he was able to overcome the crunch with the help of profits from other business operations. He found a solution to this by merging with British Satellite broadcasting Corporation in 1990.The merged Company came to be known as BSKYB. In 1993, after a few initial hiccups, his Australian – based News Crop launched the Foxtel Pay Television network in Australia, in partnership with Telstra. In 1996 Rupert Murdoch entered the world of cable news with Fox News Channel, and stood as tough competitor to CNN. In 1999 Rupert Murdoch acquired the controlling share in a leading Australian Company. 
Michel Gudinski’s Mushroom records. He merged it with Festival records and called it festival Mushroom Records (FMR). 
In 1993 Rupert Murdoch acquired star T.V from a Hong Kong based Company and called it STAR TV (Asia)p and made it one of the biggest satellite TV networks in Asia. Some of the prominent channels such as Star Plus, Star News, Star world, Star Sports, channel V, Discovery, National Geographic etc. that we enjoy in India today are telecast under Star TV Network. 
In 2003 he acquired a 34 percent stake in Hughes Electronics, which operated American Satellite TV System, DirecTV, from General Motors. 
In 2004 he moved News Crop’s headquarter from Adelaide, Australia to the U.S. to facilitate the investors to buy shares in the company. This was indeed a wise move on his part as it could strengthen the financial sources of the company. In 2005 News Crop bought Intermix Media Inc. which held MySpace .com and other popular social net-working themed web sites as well as IGN Entertainment. 
Thus Keith Rupert Murdoch CEO of News Corporation-Media and Entertainment Company has grown strength to strength to become Media Baron With lot of political influence wherever he has business dealings. His contribution for the giant mammoth company The News Corporation is beyond ones reckoning. Today his business empire covers television, filmed entertainment, Cable network  programming, book publishing, direct broadcast Satellite Television, Magazines and Newspaper operating in the United States, Australia, Continental Europe , the United Kingdom, Asia and the Pacific Basin.Rupert Murdoch’s personal life is also equally ridden with ripples. He divorced twice and now is happily married to Wendi Deng, a Chinese young woman who happened to be a staff in the Star TV (Asia operations).At present Rupert Murdoch continues to push his News Corporation Company forward and making forays into the Chinese market. As of now he is out of reach for Western Media. He even showed great concern for the environmental issues. Rupert Murdoch, at the age of 76, is open to change. In May 2007, he spoke about the Crop’s energy initiative. The News Corporation, with about 47,000 employees, as he said would cut down on their energy consumption. This is part of the media mogul’s ambitious plan to tackle the problem of global warming.