Rupert Murdoch and His Business Success Around The World

Introduction

Rupert Murdoch is probably one of the most influential people in the last half-century, owning over fifty media companies all over the world organized in one big conglomerate called “News corporation”, but if it were just one word to call him, it would be Rebel. Despite being one of the most influential and rich people in the recent history, he has always loved to twist normality, which has helped him to establish himself in three of the most difficult markets and societies in the world: Australia, England and finally the USA.

Born in a moderately wealthy family, news was running in his blood since his father was an important local war correspondent and publisher that prepared him to the moment when he would have to take over his father. He went to the elite school Geelong Grammar, in Australia, and then he moved to Oxford to get his degree in Master of Art. After he had finished his degree, he worked for two years as an editor in the English newspaper daily express, where he acquired and learned how to manage and sell a sensationalist tabloid. When he came back, his father had died two years ago and had left him the two newspapers that he owned: The Sunday Mail and The News, from Adelaide. With his previous experience, he started a business model that later would be proven spot-on. Using his rebel character, he continued buying local dying Australian and New Zealand newspapers and turning them into successful companies. Then, he moved to create in 1964 the first National newspaper in Australia: The Australian. Despite not having big plans for a future, he started to expand his business and as it started to grow, he started to be a bit more political on his newspapers, trying to influence local and minor elections, mainly against establishment. Since his beginnings, he showed great knowledge of the business and his ability to spot business opportunities and new improvements to boost sales.

Vision and figure

Even if many people could consider himself as part of the establishment, but he always has had a clear vision on the world: Elite v Outsiders, where he considered himself part of the outsiders, so he always tries to discomfort establishment as much as he can. This has since his first newspaper, been the main ideological, political or any possible motivation for anything ever wrote in Murdoch’s newspapers. Another peculiar characteristic of Mr. Murdoch’s business is that he lacks a typical organization, even without a hierarchy nor an organization chart, but a very defined and sharp culture: The idea that every news should be published no matter how shocking, disturbing or shameful it might be. This has lead News Corp, which allegedly publishes the “politically incorrect news”, to become one of the biggest media company in the world It all started as a family heritage: His family was already repudiated by the Australian elite due to a letter and some articles his father had wrote during the Gallipoli campaign, reporting to Britain the misled of soldiers in the front, which caused a political and military storm, not just in Australia but in the United Kingdom, besides, his newspapers were considered for the working class and weren’t read by the powerful at that time. His rebel character might not have helped neither as he reportedly had a bust of Lenin in his Oxford room (again to upset the establishment) (Estes, 2011).

Then he would be rejected in a beginning by the elites in England too, as they didn’t like an Australian businessman prying into their business, but as he gained political influence and power by supporting the right people and fighting against the enemies or troubles that he had come up with, he extended his media empire and they started to respect and even fear him. During his first’s years, he supported the conservative Margaret Thatcher, but this would change 1997 when The Sun changed for the first time its political sign from conservatives and asked the vote for Tony Blair, who had been reportedly having private meetings with Mr. Murdoch (Bevins, 1998). He would later win the election after eighteen years of conservative government and defended Mr. Murdoch’s interests all thanks to the support of the newspaper. Since then, in England is taken for granted that the side supported by the Sun has the most chances of winning an election (or referendum). This has led him to become friend and met with the bees and knees of the English-speaking countries, mainly due to his ability to support the right politicians at the right time and to make the necessary changes to keep his business running.

Business in the UK

As stated before, he decided to expand his business to the United Kingdom, buying a fading newspaper called The Sun and News of the world, his first step on the second largest English-speaking market. He managed to present himself as a better option that rivals in front of print unions, so he managed to buy these two newspapers. Again, with a now more refined technique, changed the editorial line of the paper, turning it into a sex scandal, gossip and nude’s newspaper; made specifically for countering the establishment and aimed at a very specific, but the largest, group of people: Male workers. He never uses a rigid organization chart, as he thinks this gives neatness to the company (Stelzer, 2018), and nobody is surprised if he constantly skips hierarchy in his companies. he has managed to get almost all his companies from bankruptcy to making lots of money. He says that his “liberal” organization allows people to His success was instant and allowed him to start a war against the same unions that supported him, with the consent and help of Margaret Thatcher’s government as they appeared to have common interests, considering that unions were dragging down progress defending outdated positions.

Later, he realised that newspapers where something that he had already learned to juice completely so he started to look new ways of doing the same thing he had been doing with his papers: To influence, so he bought an existent television channel (Satellite Television) and renamed it to Sky Channel, which would later become Sky Network, the largest satellite tv provider in the UK. This would mark the start of Murdoch’s business in TV, timing perfectly with the boom of the television in the late 90s. Around the same time, he already has bought some minor newspapers in the USA as the san Antonio express and The New York Post, that at the time, was struggling to not disappear. Following his strategy in the UK, he changed the editorial line of newspapers and made them to sell good. At the same time he was buying Sky, he purchased 20th century fox, and by do so he became an American citizen,Some people might think that after he gained some reputation and political power, his relationship with the establishment itself might have changed, but this could be more untrue: Since 1999 his newspaper “News of the world” had been hiring private investigators to find out the establishment’s dirty rags. From then he moved to hack a huge number of phones all over the British elite, including sometimes members of the royal family as Prince William.

There has always been the gossip that Murdoch might be a republican, so this might have been one of his strategies trying to depreciate or unpleased the British crown as a clear part of establishment. In 2009, The Guardian publishes a story that uncovers a plot involving a systematic phone tapping talking about thousands of tapped voice mails from 2006. This led to a Scotland yard investigation that discovered an even more deep case that involved police bribery and influence peddling were the top executives of news of the world were involved, instructing private detectives to hack celebrities and politicians’ phones (Davies, 2010). This was the major scandal Rupert Murdoch has faced yet, with severe consequences in all social spheres: Andy Coulson, former co-editor of News of the world, was forced to resign from his current position as a Chief Press Secretary in David Cameron’s office, and the current editor was arrested. This finally led to the inevitable decision to shut down the newspaper, as his reputation was now practically inexistent, so Murdoch closes the paper as their major advertises leaved, in a hope that the scandal would go away. Except it didn’t, Rupert Murdoch and his son James were called to testify in front of the parliament to explain its involvement in the whole plot, where they assured that as this newspaper was just a tiny fraction of their business, they had no knowledge at all about the tapping. It also caused the resignation of the chief of the metropolitan police (Stephenson, 2011) and the failure of a subsidiary of News Corporation to get a contract in order to build an student information system due to the worldwide repercussion of the scandal. (Otterman, 2011) Finally, desperate to regain, or at least not leave a horrible reputation, News of the World published a full-page apology in the form of a letter signed by Rupert himself on national newspapers. (Sweney, 2011)[image: Resultado de imagen de apology letter news of the world.

Later, Channel 4 would publish some audio recordings on a The Sun briefing (Exaro News, 2013) in where Mr. Murdoch can be heard complaining about the police “asking too many inquiries” and assuring his employees that he would take care of any imprisoned journalist, which might imply that to some extent, he knew about the phone hacking and police bribing and was okay with it.

Business in the USA

His career on the USA has neither been easy sometimes, first he encounters that the law only allowed U. S. citizens to purchase TV channels, so he became one. Then, he had to sell The New York Post, as the law also prohibited to own TV stations and newspapers in the same market (Erlanger, 1988). But later this would come as an incredible wise move, that led to the creation of the Fox Broadcasting thrust and launched him into the major league in communications. Then, in 1993, he bought back a dying New York Post (Andrews, 1993) In 1996, he launched the channel Fox News in order to compete mainly with the CNN, setting the beginning of a new era: The Foxification of the news, consisting in substituting information for opinion in every program, even the news, has then evolved to the nowadays “alternative faces” that are indeed, lies. As he had been doing in the United Kingdom, Murdoch has tried to influence the elite while challenging it, he managed to support Donald Trump, a clearly anti-establishment candidate before anyone, and his channels have been the only ones defending him almost in the entire mainstream media, gaining Trump’s confidence and preference for News Corp. Tv’s and newspapers, having now the same access to high-profile politicians as he has in the UK. But as Fox is a more republican and right-wing channel, he couldn’t attract Obama, as before he won the primaries, Murdoch’s newspapers were criticizing him or his family. Finally, to complete his media empire, he acquired the Washington Journal, considered the establishment newspaper, so he finally managed to control the information that the elite reads.

Conclussion

Since he first started, there is no doubt that he is a controvert figure, not following what we would consider normal. For example, he has been consistently investing in newspapers at time that not many people believed in the business, but what is more interesting, is that he has managed to make it work and generate a good revenue. Some people as (Ebert, 2011) thinks that Rupert Murdoch is a bad journalist, as it is said that crushes the credibility of newspapers he owns in benefit of revenue. Also, the fact that he is nicknamed dirt digger helps to give this perception of “trash journalism”, he hasn’t showed any respect for the editor or writer profession, has he has systematically perverted his employees.

Other people as (Hewlett, 2013) believe that his style, although aggressive and morally debatable, is the true essence of journalism, doing everything it takes to get the exclusive or the next breaking new, also he pushed for the mechanization of the printing and was the first one to implement it. Two different opinions that fit perfectly to a person as Rupert Murdoch. Perhaps he is all these things at the same time: He has been reportedly a socialist, to then become a liberal a finally completely anti-establishment. As a chameleon, he has managed to spot and success at most of the business opportunities he has taken, sometimes fighting against more powerful people than him and achieving a political power never seen before for a non-politician. You might or might not like him as a person or as a journalist, but it is undeniable that since Rupert Murdock entered the game, he has changed journalism forever.