Tweet

Making Headlines: Murdoch Makes the News

Article Overview: After having successfully revived The News, Murdoch began looking for other daily and local newspapers to acquire. In little time, Murdoch had gained control of most of the newspapers in Australia’s capital cities, including Sydney’s The Daily Mirror. With this, he was able to begin offering the larger competitors in Sydney a real challenge. His papers were soon becoming known for their exciting stories about sex and mayhem.

Making Headlines: Murdoch Makes the News

After having successfully revived The News, Murdoch began looking for other daily and local newspapers to acquire. In little time, Murdoch had gained control of most of the newspapers in Australia’s capital cities, including Sydney’s The Daily Mirror. With this, he was able to begin offering the larger competitors in Sydney a real challenge. His papers were soon becoming known for their exciting stories about sex and mayhem.

In 1964, he followed this up with the establishment of The Australian, the country’s first national daily newspaper. Initially based out of Canberra, Murdoch moved The Australian to Sydney, after which his reputation as a serious newsman began to develop. A more serious publication than his others, The Australian never grew particularly large in circulation, but did generate an elite readership and lent itself to Murdoch’s influence among the powers that be. In 1972, Murdoch acquired Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph, which made him one of the three largest newspaper proprietors in the country.

By 1968, Murdoch’s holdings in Australia were worth nearly $50 million, but he wanted to go global. After learning that London’s News of the World was up for sale, he engaged in a bidding war and finally won out in buying 40% of the paper’s shares. The next year, Murdoch purchased London’s The Sun, which was losing $5 million per year. He turned the paper into a tabloid and began publishing half-naked pictures of women who became known as Page 3 Girls. Circulation quickly rose from 600,000 to four million and for the first time in years, The Sun was turning a profit. He also later acquired The Times and The Sunday Times.

As Murdoch’s reputation of being a ruthless and shrew businessman was being cemented across England and Australia, Murdoch decided to take his operations to America. In 1973, Murdoch purchased the San Antonio Express-News, revamping it with more pictures, sex and dirt in traditional Murdoch style, and later also established the Star, a national tabloid. In 1976, Murdoch purchased the New York Post for $50 million, through which he began expressing his rightward leaning political views. His list of acquisitions continued to grow through the New York Magazine Company and the Chicago Sun-Times.

By 1984, Murdoch’s holding company News Corporation owned over 80 newspapers and magazines. He had also begun to break into different media, namely the television market and record industry. He purchased the Australian Festival Records as well as television stations in both Australia and England.

In 1985, Murdoch purchased TCF Holdings, the parent company of 20th Century Fox, for $250 million. He subsequently began buying independent television stations throughout the U.S., which became known as the Fox Television Stations Group. Wanting to compete with the bigger boys – ABC, CBS and NBC – Murdoch announced that he would start his own television system, Fox Broadcasting Company. When it launched, its first show, The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers, was broadcast to over 80% of American households. Soon, Fox had lined up over 90 affiliates of formerly independent stations.

Over the next fifteen years, Fox would spawn a wide range of successful television shows, including Married…with Children, America’s Most Wanted, COPS, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, The X-Files, In Living Color, The Simpsons, 24, The O.C., and American Idol. With the establishment of Fox News Channel in 1996, a 24-hour cable news station that has since eroded CNN’s market dominance, Murdoch’s achievements were cemented.

Murdoch continued to expand his holdings with the purchase of HarperCollins, New World Communications, DirecTV, and several stations from Chris-Craft Industries. He purchased the rights to broadcast the National Football League, as well as buying the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, the International Family Entertainment religious cable network, Heritage Media and part ownership of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers as well as Manchester United for $1.5 billion. He also recently purchased Intermix Media Inc., owner of MySpace.com, the world’s fourth most popular English-language website.

By 2002, Murdoch had a controlling interest in over 750 businesses around the world. With its newly moved headquarters from Australia to the New York City, News Corp. continues to expand its global media dominance. It currently earns almost $25 billion in yearly revenues, not including the revenues of companies in which it only has a minority stake. With a personal net worth of $6.7 billion, Murdoch continues his reign as one of the world’s most successful media magnates in history.

Related Articles
  Success Factors: How Murdoch Became a Magnate
  Lesson #1: Be Ruthless
  Lesson #5: Build a Strong Team
  Lesson #3: Stay Ahead of the Times
  Lesson #2: Play By Your Own Rules

Article Tags: 50 million, antonio express news, bidding war, businessman, canberra, capital cities, daily mirror, daily telegraph, exciting stories, little time, local newspapers, murdoch, murdochs, naked pictures of women, news of the world, page 3 girls, proprietors, readership, san antonio express, san antonio express news



Related Forum Posts
Making Money in 2011 - Hello forum members! As we draw closer to the new year I thought it would be appropriate to change the title of our forum category "Making Money in 2010" to "Making Money in 2011" - I'm looking forward to some interesting discussions and wish everyone a prosperous New Year!
Re: When is your interest peaked by unsolicited mail? - I rarely ever read the headlines of unsolicited email. I know when it's something I haven't signed up for and delete it right away. I get so much crap it's sickening. I may browse over the headlines as I delete them, but that's it. I haven't really noticed any that have caught my interest. As many have already suggested, I'm so calloused when it comes to headlines because I see them all the time and know what to expect. As a marketer, it makes it easy to sniff out the sales pitches. Headlines such as "can you help me?" usually get my attention, but in the end I know they want me to buy something. At least that's the case for most of the newsletters I get. Case in point, even if it isn't unsolicited, it better have a headline that's going to get me to click on it. Otherwise it'll never get read.
Re: Stopping Drive-by Spam - I've also noticed that in this and other forums. I wonder why they do it that way. Makes it easier to catch them. I suppose it's probably just laziness. I've even seen the same person spam the same thread multiple times one after another with the exact same post. I guess that just how stupid some of these spammers are!!!
Enterpreneur News - Hi Don - do you have a good Entrepreneur News feed that you can recommend?
Re: When is your interest peaked by unsolicited mail? - In "The Copywriter's Handbook", author Robert W. Bly emphasizes that effective attention-getting words are ones that offer news. For instance, Bly says "Headlines that give news often use words such as new, discover, introducing, announcing, now, it's here, at last, and just arrived...Free is the most powerful word in the copywriter's vocabulary...Other powerful attention-getting words include how to, why, sale, quick, easy, bargain, last chance, guarantee, results, proven and save" (pg 17 & 18). However, I feel as if all of Bly's keywords are over-used and audiences have learned to ignore them in unsolicited email headlines.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Tips for the Novice Traveler

A New Year in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Web Design in 30 Minutes - Can this be Right?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.