Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch, born Keith Rupert Murdoch in Melbourne on 11 March 1931, is an Australian-born American media proprietor and investor. After his father, the newspaper executive Keith Murdoch, died in 1952, he took charge of News Limited and its Adelaide paper The News, then built the business through acquisitions across Australia and New Zealand and founded the national daily The Australian in 1964. He expanded into Britain in 1969 with the News of the World and The Sun, bought The Times in 1981, moved to New York in 1974 and became a naturalised American citizen in 1985 to meet broadcast ownership rules. His holding company News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox, HarperCollins and The Wall Street Journal, and he formed the British satellite broadcaster BSkyB in 1990. He stepped down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp in 2023. His papers and channels have drawn sustained criticism over political influence and the 2011 phone hacking scandal.