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Keith Rupert Murdoch , AC, KCSG (born Melbourne , March 11, 1931 ), usually known as Rupert Murdoch , is an American global media tycoon. He is the major shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation (News Corp). Beginning with newspapers, magazines and television stations in his native Australia, Murdoch expanded News Corp into the UK, US and Asian media markets. In recent years has become a leading investor in satellite television, the film industry, the Internet and media. News Corp is based in New York .

According to Forbes Magazine, Murdoch is the 32nd wealthiest American with a networth of $7.7 billion.

Beginnings Early life and family

Murdoch is the son of a powerful Australian newspaper proprietor, Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch. He attended Geelong Grammar, one of Australia's most elite private schools and was reading philosophy, politics and economics at Worcester College, 1952 .

Before his death, Keith Murdoch had accumulated a great number of shares in newspaper companies, including some representing a controlling interest in News Limited, an Adelaide company publishing an afternoon newspaper called The News. He had appointed an experienced journalist named Rohan Rivett, a childhood friend and mentor of Rupert Murdoch, as editor of The News, with the hope that Rupert would enter a career in journalism and that Rivett would assist Rupert in learning the required skills. In his will, Keith Murdoch instructed his trustees that Rupert should begin his career at The News: "if they consider him worthy of support". At that time of his father's death, Murdoch had written articles for Oxford student newspapers and had worked for a number of newspapers in a junior capacity. Some thought he had little interest in journalism though and noted his enthusiasm for gambling and making money. At the time of his death Keith Murdoch was heavily in debt, but possessed within a private family trust a considerable number of newspaper shares, some of which may have actually belonged to The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd. The trustees, in consultation with Keith's widow and Rupert's mother, Lady Elisabeth Murdoch, were forced to sell many of the shares and other property in order to repay debt and death duties (government taxes). Elisabeth was able to retain only the family home, Cruden Farm, and the shares in News Limited and its subsidiaries, a Melbourne magazine publishing company named Southdown Press and The Barrier Miner, a regional newspaper at Broken Hill, New South Wales.

Start of business career

Rupert Murdoch returned from Oxford to become managing director of News Limited in 1953. His drive and energy infected the staff and the circulation and advertising revenue began to grow. He began to direct his attention to acquisition and expansion. He bought the Sunday Times in Perth, Western Australia and, using the tabloid techniques of Lord Northcliffe, made it a success.

In 1956 , Murdoch began publishing Australia's first and most successful weekly television magazine, TV Week, at Southdown Press in Melbourne, which also published Australia's oldest women's magazine New Idea. With the Perth paper, the TV magazine and a re-energised New Idea all providing a steady and improving cash flow he was able to obtain finance for more expansion from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, a government-owned bank dedicated to supporting Australian business development.

Building the Empire Acquisitions in Britain Moving into the United States Expansion in Asia Recent activities Political activities Australia United States of America United Kingdom Personal life Criticism and controversy