Murdoch: Man who changed the media

Mar 11, 1931: Keith Rupert Murdoch is born in Melbourne, Australia, to Keith Murdoch, reporter turned newspaper publisher, and his wife, Elisabeth

1952: 21-year-old Rupert inherits The News – Murdoch-family tabloid – “foundation stone” of News Limited and News Corp.

1967: Murdoch divorces Patricia Booker, mother of his daughter Prudence. He marries Anna Torv, with whom he has three children, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James

1969: News Limited buys News of The World – Britain’s biggest-selling weekly. Murdoch soon also purchases The Sun, building it into UK’s most influential tabloid

1973: Murdoch expands into U.S., buying San Antonio Express and San Antonio News. Over next five years he adds other U.S. titles, including New York Post

1981: Murdoch buys biggest-selling British quality weekly, The Sunday Times, and its stablemate, The Times.
Deal has support of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (inset) – who enables purchase to avoid Monopolies and Mergers Commission, even though Murdoch already owns two national newspapers

1983: Purchases Hitler Diaries. Sunday Times runs six pages before diaries are found to be fake

1986-87: Computers installed at new newspaper production site in Wapping, enabling direct input of copy by journalists. Print unions call nearly 6,000 members out on strike. Backed by sympathetic Thatcher government, Murdoch sacks them all. Power of print unions is broken throughout industry

1989: Launch of Sky News creates UK’s first 24-hour news television channel but nearly bankrupts Murdoch.
Sky News goes on to run live rolling coverage of Nelson Mandela’s release and fall of Berlin Wall

1993: Buys Star TV, pan-Asian TV service based in Hong Kong, for $1 billion. Plan to gain access to mainland China is blocked by Communist Party’s control over media

1996: Murdoch launches Fox News Channel in U.S. Within four years, News Corp.-owned TV channel is
available in 56 million homes nationwide

1999: Divorces Anna, marries Wendi Deng

2000: Lachlan, Murdoch’s elder son, becomes deputy chief operating officer of News Corp. Younger son James (right), becomes chair of Star TV, moving to Sky in 2003

2005: Lachlan quits News Corp after conflicts with senior executives

2007: News Corp purchases Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. James moves to UK to run News International

2011-12: News International phone hacking scandal targets celebrities, politicians, and members of British royal family. Scandal prompts Murdoch to close News of the World. James resigns as chair of News International

2013: Murdoch splits News Corp from 21st Century Fox. 14-year marriage to Wendi Deng ends

2016: Media mogul marries U.S. model and actress Jerry Hall. Marriage lasts until 2022 – his fourth marriage and divorce

2019: Walt Disney Company buys most of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets for $54.2 billion

Apr 2023: Fox News reaches $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems to end two-year
legal battle after falsely claiming voting machine company rigged 2020 presidential election results

Sep 21, 2023: Rupert Murdoch steps down as chair of Fox and News Corp, handing leadership
to Lachlan (right). Murdoch will remain chairman emeritus of both companies


Sources: Associated Press, Australian Financial Review, New York Times, Reuters, Time, Vanity Fair
Pictures: Getty Images
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