THE MURDOCH METHOD
OBSERVATIONS ON RUPERT MURDOCHS MANAGEMENT OF A MEDIA EMPIRE
IRWIN STELZER
THE MURDOCH METHOD
Pegasus Books Ltd
148 West 37th Street, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10018
Copyright 2018 by Irwin Stelzer
First Pegasus Books hardcover edition May 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review in a newspaper, magazine, or electronic publication; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other, without written permission from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-68177-792-4
ISBN: 978-1-68177-805-1 (e-book)
Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
For Cita
Who has made this book and much else possible
Im a strange mixture of my mothers curiosity; my father, who grew up the son of the manse in a Presbyterian family, who had a tremendous sense of duty and responsibility; and my mothers father, who was always in trouble with gambling debts
Rupert Murdoch, 2008
I would hope they [my children] would lead useful, happy and concerned lives with a very responsible view of what they should and are able to do according to their circumstances
Elisabeth Murdoch, circa 1989
I am a curious person who is interested in the great issues of the day and I am not good at holding my tongue
Rupert Murdoch, 2012
CONTENTS
KEITH RUPERT MURDOCH
1931 |
March | Keith Rupert Murdoch born |
1950 |
October | Goes up to Worcester College, Oxford |
1952 |
October | Father, Keith Arthur Murdoch, passes away. Rupert inherits fathers stake. The will is complicated, so the precise date of possession is difficult to pinpoint |
1953 |
Family approves of Rupert becoming managing director of Adelaide papers, News and Sunday Mail |
1956 |
Marries Patricia Booker |
1958 |
Daughter Prudence (now Prudence MacLeod) born |
1964 |
July | Launches The Australian , a serious, nation-wide broadsheet in Australia, and his first new title |
1967 |
Divorces Patricia Booker Marries Anna Torv (now Anna Murdoch Mann) |
1968 |
January August | Acquires News of the World Elisabeth Murdoch born |
1969 |
September | Acquires The Sun , at the time a broadsheet |
1970 |
November | The first genuine Page Three girl appears in The Sun |
1971 |
September | Lachlan Keith Murdoch born |
1972 |
December | James Rupert Jacob Murdoch born |
1973 |
December | Acquires San Antonio Express , the News , and their combined Sunday paper. First US acquisition |
1976 |
November | Acquires New York Post |
1978 |
August October | New York newspaper strike Author meets Murdoch for first time at birthday party for his wife Cita at Lutce restaurant in New York |
1981 |
February | Acquires The Times and The Sunday Times |
1983 |
November | Acquires Chicago Sun-Times |
1985 |
March | Rupert acquires 50 per cent of 20th Century Fox and the balance in September of that year |
September | Rupert becomes an American citizen |
1986 |
January | The Times and Sunday Times move to Wapping and strike begins |
1989 |
January | Acquires William Collins Publishers and combines it with Harper & Row, acquired a year earlier |
February | Sky Television launched |
1990 |
January | Purchases two Hungarian newspapers, Mai Nap and Reform |
1992 |
June | Rupert fires Steve Chao over performance at company conference in Aspen |
1993 |
September | Rupert claims satellites threaten dictatorships and is thrown out of China |
December | Rupert (Fox) acquires TV rights to NFL for four years for $1.58 billion |
1996 |
James Murdoch sells Rawkus Records to News Corp. in 1996 and joins the family firm |
October | Rupert launches Fox News Channel |
1998 |
May | Murdoch issues apology to Chris Patten for cancelling publication of and disparaging his book |
1999 |
June | Divorces Anna Murdoch. Marries Wendi Deng the same month |
2001 |
November | Daughter, Grace Helen Murdoch, born |
2003 |
July November | Daughter, Chloe Murdoch, born The Times switches to tabloid format alongside broadsheet, which is abandoned in November 2004 in favor of tabloid format |
2005 |
July | News Corp. buys Intermix which owns Myspace for $580 million, value grows to $12 billion, sold for $35 million June 2011 |
Lachlan Murdoch resigns from News Corp. after Rupert undermines his authority |
2007 |
August | Acquires The Wall Street Journal |
2008 |
January | Settles defamation suit with author Judith Regan |
2011 |
February | Elisabeth Murdoch sells her company (Shine) to News Corp. |
2012 |
February | James Murdoch resigns from News International and heads to Fox in Los Angeles |
April | Rupert testifies at Leveson Inquiry |
December | Dame Elisabeth Murdoch dies |
2013 |
June | News Corp. split into News Corp (without the full point) and 21st Century Fox. Succession established as described in the book |
November | Divorces Wendi Deng Murdoch |
2014 |
August | Rupert drops out of bidding for Time Warner to preserve credit rating |
2016 |
March | Marries Jerry Hall |
July | Roger Ailes resigns as CEO of Fox News and Rupert becomes acting CEO |
2017 |
December | Sells 21st Century Fox Entertainment assets to Disney |
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