100-578: The Edinburgh International Television Festival is an annual media event held in the United Kingdom each August which brings together delegates from the television and digital world to debate the major issues facing the industry. The Festival draws over 2,200 delegates from across the global TV industry. Although the festival is held in Edinburgh, its headquarters are in London. Over the years,
200-693: A libertarian , saying "What does libertarian mean? As much individual responsibility as possible, as little government as possible, as few rules as possible. But I'm not saying it should be taken to the absolute limit." In a speech he delivered in New York in 2005, Murdoch claimed that Blair described the BBC coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, which was critical of the Bush administration's response, as full of hatred of America. On 28 June 2006,
300-531: A Sunday edition of The Sun to replace the News of the World , and it did, on 26 February 2012. The domain names sunonsunday.co.uk , thesunonsunday.co.uk and thesunonsunday.com were registered on 5 July 2011 by News International Newspapers Limited. In early 1967, the newspaper ran a three-part feature entitled "Pop Stars and Drugs: Facts That Will Shock You". The series described alleged LSD parties hosted by
400-443: A child. The paper's decision led to some instances of action being taken against those suspected of being child sex offenders, which included several cases of mistaken identity, including one instance where a paediatrician had her house vandalised, and another where a man was confronted because he had a neck brace similar to one a paedophile was wearing when pictured. The campaign was labelled "grossly irresponsible" journalism by
500-472: A collage of past front pages. The back cover featured a quote from George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four that mentions the paper, and a recent quote from a NotW reader. The final edition also included a 48-page pullout documenting the history of the paper. On 9 July 2011, after production of the final edition wrapped, editor Colin Myler led the staff out of the building, where he held a press conference thanking
600-678: A convergence of interests between the two men over the muting of Britain's communications regulator Ofcom . In August 2008, Cameron accepted free flights to hold private talks and attend private parties with Murdoch on his yacht, the Rosehearty . Cameron declared in the Commons register of interests he accepted a private plane provided by Murdoch's son-in-law, public relations guru Matthew Freud ; Cameron did not reveal his talks with Murdoch. The gift of travel in Freud's Gulfstream IV private jet
700-459: A different position from local editors on such matters as climate change and stimulus packages to combat the financial crisis. Murdoch is a supporter of the formation of an Australian republic , having campaigned for such a change during the 1999 referendum . In 1968, Murdoch entered the British newspaper market with his acquisition of the populist News of the World , followed in 1969 with
800-532: A hostile response to his bid from the Carrs and from the editor of the News of the World , Stafford Somerfield , who declared in an October 1968 front page leading article attacking Maxwell that the paper was "as British as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding ". News Ltd. arranged to swap shares in some of its minor ventures with the Carrs and by December it controlled 40% of the NOTW stock. Maxwell had been supported by
900-686: A member of the Rolling Stones allegedly took several Benzedrine tablets, displayed a piece of hashish and invited his companions back to his flat for a "smoke". The article claimed that the member was singer Mick Jagger , although the reporter had in fact been eavesdropping on guitarist Brian Jones . On 10 May 1967, Jagger, Keith Richards , and their friend art dealer Robert Fraser were arrested at Richards' Redlands estate in West Wittering and charged with possession of cannabis and amphetamines , while bandmate Jones' London house
1000-466: A number of arrests. Criticism of the sentences also came from the News of the World' s future sister publication The Times , which ran an editorial entitled " Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel? " in which conservative editor William Rees-Mogg surprised his readers by his unusually critical discourse on the sentencing, pointing out that Jagger had been treated far more harshly for a minor first offense than "any purely anonymous young man". On 31 July,
1100-457: A private investigator paid by the paper, testified that he had been asked by the newspaper's leadership to hack voicemail accounts on its behalf. In April 2011, attorneys for the victims alleged that as many as 7,000 people had their phones hacked by the News of the World ; it was further revealed that the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch , had attempted to pressure Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Labour Party MPs to "back away" from investigating
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#17327801750991200-476: A radio station in a remote mining town, and chairman of the Herald and Weekly Times publishing company. Murdoch had three sisters: Helen (1929–2004), Anne (born 1935) and Janet (born 1939). His Scottish-born paternal grandfather, Patrick John Murdoch , was a Presbyterian minister . Murdoch attended Geelong Grammar School , where he was co-editor of the school's official journal The Corian and editor of
1300-683: A separate edition produced in Belfast. It was also printed at a number of sites abroad including Madrid, Brussels, Cyprus and Orlando in Florida, US. In 1985, the News of the World moved out of Thomson House when the building was bought by the tycoon Robert Maxwell (and renamed Maxwell House) and, after a short spell on the Daily Express presses in Great Ancoats Street, moved to a new plant at Knowsley on Merseyside. In 2011
1400-498: A television interview with David Frost after the newspaper published extracts, in late summer 1969, from the memoirs of Christine Keeler . Keeler had been a central figure in the Profumo scandal which had emerged to public scrutiny in 1963. Murdoch regretted agreeing to the interview with Frost. In February 1970, Stafford Somerfield was sacked as editor after coming into conflict with Murdoch, whose takeover he had opposed. During
1500-559: Is an Australian-born American business magnate , investor, oligarch, and media proprietor. Through his company News Corp , he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including in the UK ( The Sun and The Times ), in Australia ( The Daily Telegraph , Herald Sun , and The Australian ), in the US ( The Wall Street Journal and
1600-638: Is governed by its own board of directors. The TV Foundation runs a suite of free-to-access creative development initiatives: "The Network" (formerly known as TVYP) which gives new entrants a first step into the TV industry, while "Ones to Watch" (formerly known as Fast Track) supports those at mid-career. Both benefit from fully funded places at the Festival, which include tailored workshops, masterclasses and networking. Year-round mentoring, training and events are also offered. The Festival runs other events throughout
1700-431: Is it?" "It's called the News of the World —I'll send you a copy", replied Riddell, and in due course did so. Next time they met Riddell said, "Well Greenwood, what do you think of my paper?" "I looked at it", replied Greenwood, "and then I put it in the waste-paper basket. And then I thought, 'If I leave it there the cook may read it'—so I burned it!" By 1912, the circulation was two million and around three million by
1800-527: The New York Post ), book publisher HarperCollins , and the television broadcasting channels Sky News Australia and Fox News (through the Fox Corporation ). He was also the owner of Sky (until 2018), 21st Century Fox ( until 2019 ), and the now-defunct News of the World . With a net worth of US$ 21.7 billion as of 2 March 2022, Murdoch is the 31st richest person in
1900-459: The 1992 general election , which had been expected to end in a hung parliament or a narrow win for Labour, then led by Neil Kinnock . In the general elections of 1997 , 2001 and 2005 , Murdoch's papers were either neutral or supported Labour under Tony Blair . The Labour Party, from when Blair became leader in 1994, had moved from the centre-left to a more centrist position on many economic issues before 1997. Murdoch identifies himself as
2000-640: The Conservative Party throughout its history (endorsing Edward Heath in the 1970 and both 1974 elections), maintained its political posture during the early years of the Murdoch era, whereas its weekday sister The Sun did not have a definitive allegiance, (supporting Harold Wilson 's Labour Party in 1970 , Heath in February 1974 and Jeremy Thorpe 's Liberal Party in October 1974 ) until
2100-516: The NOTW will soon be replaced by something equally loathsome like The Sunday Sun . The paper became notorious for chequebook journalism , as it was often discovered attempting to buy stories, typically concerning private affairs and relationships, of people closely involved with figures of public interest such as politicians, celebrities and high-profile criminals. With this intention, the paper on occasion paid key witnesses in criminal trials such as
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#17327801750992200-808: The News Chronicle closed. The move to Thomson House led to the immediate closure of the Empire News , a paper printed there and mainly circulating in the North of England and Wales with a circulation of about 2.5 million. Officially the Empire News and News of the World merged but Thomson House was already printing the Sunday Pictorial (to become the Sunday Mirror ) and Sunday Times and did not have any further capacity with
2300-564: The News of the World arriving. The paper's motto was "All human life is there". The paper's name was linked with sports events as early as 1903 when the golfing tournament The News of the World Match Play Championship began (now under British PGA auspices). The News of the World Darts Championship existed from 1927 on a regional basis and became a national tournament from 1947 to 1990. There
2400-413: The News of the World established itself as the most widely read Sunday paper, with initial sales of around 12,000 copies a week. Sales then suffered because the price was not cut following the abolition of newspaper taxes and the paper was soon no longer among the leading Sunday titles, selling around 30,000 by 1880, a greater number but a smaller proportion, as newspaper sales had grown hugely. The title
2500-512: The News of the World had become the biggest-selling newspaper in the world with a weekly sale of 8,441,000 and individual editions sold over 9 million copies. As with other Sunday newspapers , the News of the World was published on Saturday whenever Christmas Day fell on Sunday. The newspaper passed into the hands of Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd. in 1969, following a year-long struggle with Robert Maxwell 's Pergamon Press . Maxwell's Czech origin, combined with his political opinions, provoked
2600-469: The United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one of the highest English-language circulations. It was originally established as a broadsheet by John Browne Bell, who identified crime, sensation and vice as the themes that would sell most copies. The Bells sold to Henry Lascelles Carr in 1891; in 1969, it
2700-515: The micropayments model for obtaining revenue from online news, although this has been criticised by some. In January 2018, the CMA blocked Murdoch from taking over the remaining 61% of BSkyB he did not already own, over fear of market dominance that could potentialise censorship of the media. His bid for BSkyB was later approved by the CMA as long as he sold Sky News to The Walt Disney Company , which
2800-474: The papers . It'll be the journalists who decide that – the editors." Murdoch described Howard's successor, Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd , as "more ambitious to lead the world [in tackling climate change] than to lead Australia" and criticised Rudd's expansionary fiscal policies in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 as unnecessary. In 2009, in response to accusations by Rudd that News Limited
2900-530: The 1966 Moors murders case, and the 1999 trial of Gary Glitter on charges of assaulting an underage teenage fan. The paper began a controversial campaign to name and shame alleged paedophiles in July 2000, following the abduction and murder of Sarah Payne in West Sussex. During the trial of her killer Roy Whiting , it emerged that he had a previous conviction for abduction and sexual assault against
3000-473: The 1980s, Murdoch formed a close alliance with Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher . In February 1981, when Murdoch, already owner of The Sun and The News of the World , sought to buy The Times and The Sunday Times , Thatcher's government let his bid pass without referring it to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission , which was usual practice at the time. Although contact between
3100-523: The 32-year-old Murdoch was ultimately successful. Later in 1964, Murdoch launched The Australian , Australia's first national daily newspaper, which was based first in Canberra and later in Sydney. In 1972, Murdoch acquired the Sydney morning tabloid The Daily Telegraph from Australian media mogul Sir Frank Packer , who later regretted selling it to him. In 1984, Murdoch was appointed Companion of
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3200-723: The BBC reported that Murdoch and News Corporation were considering backing new Conservative leader David Cameron at the next General Election – still up to four years away. In a later interview in July 2006, when he was asked what he thought of the Conservative leader, Murdoch replied "Not much". In a 2009 blog, it was suggested that in the aftermath of the News of the World phone hacking scandal , which might yet have transatlantic implications, Murdoch and News Corporation might have decided to back Cameron. Despite this, there had already been
3300-410: The British broadcaster BSkyB in 1990 and, during the 1990s, expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000, Murdoch's News Corporation owned more than 800 companies in more than 50 countries, with a net worth of more than $ 5 billion. In July 2011, Murdoch faced allegations that his companies, including the News of the World , owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking
3400-421: The Festival has attracted industry figures including Rupert Murdoch , Ted Turner , Vince Gilligan , Ted Sarandos , Elisabeth Murdoch , Louis Theroux , Michaela Coel , David Attenborough , Charlie Brooker , David Olusoga and Steve Coogan as well as people distinguished in their fields such as Al Gore and Eric Schmidt. Established in 1976, the Festival takes place every August in the week leading up to
3500-514: The Jackson family (25% shareholders), but Murdoch had gained the support of the Carr family (30%) and then-chairman William Carr. In January 1969, Maxwell's bid was rejected at a shareholders' meeting where half of those present were company staff, temporarily given voting shares. It was Murdoch's first Fleet Street acquisition. Maxwell accused Murdoch of employing "the laws of the jungle" to acquire
3600-604: The Moody Blues and attended by top stars including the Who 's Pete Townshend and Cream 's Ginger Baker , and alleged admissions of drug use by leading pop musicians. The first article targeted Donovan (who was raided and charged soon after); the second installment (published on 5 February) targeted the Rolling Stones . A reporter who contributed to the story spent an evening at the exclusive London club Blaise's, where
3700-598: The Order of Australia (AC) for services to publishing. After the Keating government relaxed media ownership laws, in 1986 Murdoch launched a takeover bid for The Herald and Weekly Times , which was the largest newspaper publisher in Australia. There was a three-way takeover battle between Murdoch, Fairfax and Robert Holmes à Court , with Murdoch succeeding after agreeing to some divestments. In 1999, Murdoch significantly expanded his music holdings in Australia by acquiring
3800-869: The People's Republic of China, and public ownership of Australia's oil, gas and mineral resources. Rupert Murdoch's backing of Whitlam turned out to be brief. Murdoch had already started his short-lived National Star newspaper in America, and was seeking to strengthen his political contacts there. Asked about the 2007 Australian federal election at News Corporation's annual general meeting in New York on 19 October 2007, its chairman Rupert Murdoch said: "I am not commenting on anything to do with Australian politics . I'm sorry. I always get into trouble when I do that." Pressed as to whether he believed Prime Minister John Howard should continue as prime minister, he said: "I have nothing further to say. I'm sorry. Read our editorials in
3900-504: The Popular Press (Gollancz, 1996), says that the News of the World of the 1890s was "a very fine paper indeed". The paper was not without its detractors, though. As one writer later related: Frederick Greenwood , editor of The Pall Mall Gazette , met in his club one day Lord Riddell, who died a few years ago, and in the course of conversation Riddell said to him, "You know, I own a paper." "Oh, do you?" said Greenwood, "what
4000-451: The UK, US, and Australia. As of September 2024 , the Murdoch family is involved in a court case in the US in which his three children Elisabeth , Prudence , and James are challenging their father's bid to amend the family trust to ensure that his eldest son, Lachlan , retains control of News Corp and Fox Corp, rather than the trust benefiting all of his six children, as is specified in its "irrevocable" terms. Keith Rupert Murdoch
4100-554: The UK. Murdoch has a seat on the Strategic Advisory Board of Genie Oil and Gas , having jointly invested with Lord Rothschild in a 5.5% stake in the company which conducted shale gas and oil exploration in Colorado , Mongolia , Israel , and the occupied Golan Heights . In response to print media's decline and the increasing influence of online journalism during the 2000s, Murdoch proclaimed his support of
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4200-467: The United States and the 71st richest in the world according to Forbes magazine. After his father Keith Murdoch died in 1952, Murdoch took over the running of The News , a small Adelaide newspaper owned by his father. In the 1950s and 1960s, Murdoch acquired a number of newspapers in Australia and New Zealand before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of
4300-527: The United States. The greater degree of automation led to significant reductions in the number of employees involved in the printing process. In England, the move roused the anger of the print unions, resulting in a long and often violent dispute that played out in Wapping , one of London's docklands areas, where Murdoch had installed the very latest electronic newspaper purpose-built publishing facility in an old warehouse. The bitter Wapping dispute started with
4400-712: The World , followed closely by The Sun . In 1974, Murdoch moved to New York City, to expand into the US market; however, he retained interests in Australia and the UK. In 1981, Murdoch bought The Times , his first British broadsheet , and, in 1985, became a naturalized US citizen, giving up his Australian citizenship, to satisfy the legal requirement for US television network ownership. In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, Murdoch consolidated his UK printing operations in London, causing bitter industrial disputes. His holding company News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989), and The Wall Street Journal (2007). Murdoch formed
4500-541: The appeals court overturned Richards' conviction, and Jagger's sentence was reduced to a conditional discharge . Brian Jones' trial took place in November 1967; in December, after appealing the original prison sentence, Jones was fined £1,000, put on three years' probation and ordered to seek professional help. Commenting on the closure in 2011 of the newspaper against which he had led protests 44 years earlier, Farren
4600-571: The bank holiday at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre at the same time as the Edinburgh Fringe, and similar events, in the city. The Edinburgh International Television Festival is programmed by and for the television industry, by a rotating advisory committee headed by a new chair every year. The Festival is wholly owned by a not-for-profit charity, known publicly as The TV Foundation and
4700-474: The cheapest newspaper of its time and was aimed directly at the newly literate working classes. It quickly established itself as a purveyor of titillation, shock, and criminal news. Much of the source material came from coverage of vice prosecutions, including lurid transcripts of police descriptions of alleged brothels, streetwalkers , and "immoral" women. In 1924 the newspaper sponsored the 1924 Women's Olympiad held at Stamford Bridge in London. Before long,
4800-640: The controlling share in a leading Australian independent label, Michael Gudinski 's Mushroom Records ; he merged that with Festival Records , and the result was Festival Mushroom Records (FMR). Both Festival and FMR were managed by Murdoch's son James Murdoch for several years. Murdoch found a political ally in Sir John McEwen , leader of the Australian Country Party (now known as the National Party of Australia ), who
4900-460: The daughter of the actor Denholm Elliott . He stated, "The going rate for that kind of thing might have been two to five hundred pounds and that would have been authorised, and he [i.e., the police officer] would have been paid... and he would have been on the lookout for another story..." The articles described Elliott's destitute situation and stated that she had worked as a prostitute. Jennifer Elliott took her own life in 2003. In McMullan's opinion,
5000-585: The dismissal of 6,000 employees who had gone on strike and resulted in street battles and demonstrations. Many on the political left in Britain alleged the collusion of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government with Murdoch in the Wapping affair, as a way of damaging the British trade union movement . In 1987, the dismissed workers accepted a settlement of £60 million. In 1998, Murdoch made an attempt to buy
5100-781: The early 1920s. Sales reached four million by 1939. This success encouraged other similar newspapers, of which The Sunday People , the Daily Mail , the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror are still being published. In 1928, the paper began printing in Manchester on the presses of the News Chronicle in Derby Street, moving in 1960 into Thomson House, Withy Grove (formerly known as Kemsley House) when
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#17327801750995200-408: The first-ever outright majority in the proportionally elected Scottish Parliament. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman said in November 2009 that Brown and Murdoch "were in regular communication" and that "there is nothing unusual in the prime minister talking to Rupert Murdoch". In 1986, Murdoch introduced electronic production processes to his newspapers in Australia, Britain and
5300-517: The football club Manchester United F.C. , with an offer of £625 million, but this failed. It was the largest amount ever offered for a sports club. It was blocked by the United Kingdom's Competition Commission , which stated that the acquisition would have "hurt competition in the broadcast industry and the quality of British football". Murdoch's British-based satellite network, Sky Television , incurred massive losses in its early years of operation. As with many of his other business interests, Sky
5400-643: The four decades of Murdoch's ownership, the newspaper had to frequently defend itself against libel charges as well as complaints to the Press Council (later the Press Complaints Commission ) on accusations of certain news-gathering techniques, such as entrapment , and contentious campaigns. Some of the better-known of these were the "Bob and Sue" case with reporter Neville Thurlbeck , and various cases involving journalist Mazher Mahmood . The newspaper, which had generally supported
5500-505: The kidnap plot. This led to an investigation by Scotland Yard on News of the World called Operation Canopus. In August 2010, Mahmood posed as the "Fake Sheikh" to expose a cricket bookie named Mazhar Majeed who claimed Pakistani cricketers had committed spot-fixing during Pakistan's 2010 tour of England. In November 2011, Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif were found guilty by a London court on criminal charges relating to spot-fixing. Mohammad Amir and Majeed had entered guilty pleas on
5600-625: The late 1970s when it became a Tory bastion. Both newspapers would later endorse Tony Blair 's New Labour during the late 1990s and early 2000s before switching back to the Conservatives during David Cameron 's leadership. Starting in 1981, a magazine supplement ( Sunday ) was included with the paper and, in 1984, the newspaper changed from broadsheet to tabloid format. The paper was printed in Hertfordshire , Liverpool, Dinnington near Sheffield, Portsmouth, Glasgow and Dublin, with
5700-402: The latter jailed for phone hacking in 2007. The former executive editor Neil Wallis was arrested on 15 July 2011 and former editor Rebekah Brooks , the tenth person held in custody, on 17 July 2011. During a visit to London on 17 February 2012, Murdoch announced he was soon to launch a Sunday edition of The Sun , which acted as a replacement to the News of the World . On 19 February 2012, it
5800-715: The life governor of the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne and established the Murdoch Children's Research Institute ; at the age of 102 (in 2011), she had 74 descendants. While his father was alive, he worked part-time at the Melbourne Herald and was groomed by his father to take over the family business. After his father's death, Rupert began working as a sub-editor with the Daily Express for two years. Following his father's death, when he
5900-403: The newspaper announced that it was offering a record-breaking reward of £250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murders of five prostitutes around Ipswich , Suffolk. The reward went unclaimed; Steve Wright was arrested on suspicion of murder six days later following the use of unrelated information to link him to the murders. He
6000-407: The newspaper. These culminated in the revelation on 4 July 2011 that, nearly a decade earlier, a private investigator hired by the newspaper had intercepted the voicemail of missing British teenager Milly Dowler , who was later found murdered. Amid a public backlash and the withdrawal of advertising, News International announced the closure of the newspaper on 7 July 2011. The scandal deepened when
6100-544: The next day pending appeal. The News of the World was rapidly identified by the hippy counterculture as the prime culprit for the imprisonments, which were seen as an attempt by the Establishment to send a collective message to a hedonistic young generation. International Times and activist and musician Mick Farren organised protests outside the Fleet Street offices of the newspaper. Protesters informed
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#17327801750996200-478: The nickname Screws of the World . In its last decade it had a reputation for exposing celebrities' drug use, sexual peccadilloes, or criminal acts , by using insiders and journalists in disguise to provide video or photographic evidence, and covert phone hacking in ongoing police investigations. Sales averaged 2,812,005 copies per week in October 2010. From 2006, allegations of phone hacking began to engulf
6300-562: The paper and said he had "made a fair and bona fide offer... which has been frustrated and defeated after three months of [cynical] manoeuvring." Murdoch denied this, arguing the shareholders of the News of the World Group had "judged [his] record in Australia." Illness removed Sir William Carr from the chairmanship in June 1969, and Murdoch succeeded him. Murdoch came under severe criticism in
6400-420: The paper was alleged to have hacked into the phones of families of British service personnel killed in action. Senior figures on the newspaper have been held for questioning by police investigating the phone hacking and corruption allegations, alongside former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan . Arrested on 8 July 2011 were former editor Andy Coulson and former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman ,
6500-455: The paper's staff that their objective was "freeing the fucking Stones and closing down the fucking News of the World ". Farren later credited his colleague Sue Miles with identifying the paper as a target for protest because, as she put it, "they were the bastards who started this" (with their feature on drugs in music). Farren reported that a second night of protests was broken up by officers from City of London Police , who beat him up and made
6600-536: The papers around. Harold Evans , editor of the Sunday Times from 1967, was switched to the daily Times , though he stayed only a year amid editorial conflict with Murdoch. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Murdoch's publications were generally supportive of Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher . At the end of the Thatcher / Major era, Murdoch switched his support to the Labour Party and its leader, Tony Blair . The closeness of his relationship with Blair and their secret meetings to discuss national policies
6700-621: The phones of celebrities, royalty, and public citizens. Murdoch faced police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the US. On 21 July 2012, Murdoch resigned as a director of News International . In September 2023, Murdoch announced he would be stepping down as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. Many of Murdoch's papers and television channels have been accused of biased and misleading coverage to support his business interests and political allies, and some have linked his influence with major political developments in
6800-424: The purchase of a controlling interest in the New Zealand daily The Dominion . In January 1964, while touring New Zealand with friends in a rented Morris Minor after sailing across the Tasman, Murdoch read of a takeover bid for the Wellington paper by the British-based Canadian newspaper magnate Lord Thomson of Fleet . On the spur of the moment, he launched a counter-bid. A four-way battle for control ensued in which
6900-414: The purchase of the struggling daily The Sun from IPC . Murdoch turned The Sun into a tabloid format and reduced costs by using the same printing press for both newspapers. On acquiring it, he appointed Albert 'Larry' Lamb as editor and – Lamb recalled later – told him: "I want a tearaway paper with lots of tits in it". In 1997 The Sun attracted 10 million daily readers. In 1981, Murdoch acquired
7000-456: The regular stamp-out-these-hippie-dope-fiends "exposés" that fueled the dangerous red-faced ire of all the saloon bar tweed blowhards who "only read the paper for the sports" and not the weekly catalogue of rape cases. And then, of course, the whole game was played all over again against John Rotten and his ilk in the punk era. Rupert Murdoch has closed down his disgusting organ and I hope its memory will yellow and decay. Unfortunately, I suspect
7100-475: The remaining 26 pence for each copy went to retailers selling the paper and to wholesalers. Shutting the newspaper cost News Group Newspapers around £240m. The government of the United Kingdom said it had no role in the decision. James Murdoch claimed that the company was fully co-operating with ongoing police investigations. The edition of 10 July 2011 of the News of the World carried its final headline, "Thank You & Goodbye", superimposed on top of
7200-467: The same charges. In a September 2010 interview broadcast on 7 July 2011 on the BBC Radio 4 news programme The World at One , former News of the World features editor Paul McMullan made an admission relating to police corruption. He told of having used material obtained by a colleague's bribery of a police officer as the basis of a series of articles published over several years on Jennifer Elliott,
7300-473: The scandal. Three journalists on the newspaper were initially arrested: Ian Edmondson and Neville Thurlbeck on 5 April and James Weatherup on 14 April. The newspaper "unreservedly" apologised for its phone hacking activities during April 2011. On 4 July 2011, it was disclosed that potential evidence had been deleted in spring 2002 from the hacked voicemail account of Milly Dowler , then missing, but later found to have been murdered. On 13 December 2006,
7400-417: The staff and its readers, concluding, "In the best tradition, we are going to the pub." The paper's final, and unattributed, editorial, stated that "Phones were hacked, and for that this newspaper is truly sorry... there is no justification for this appalling wrongdoing." The final edition sold 3.8 million copies, about a million more than usual. There was soon speculation that News International would launch
7500-405: The struggling Times and Sunday Times from Canadian newspaper publisher Lord Thomson of Fleet . Ownership of The Times came to him through his relationship with Lord Thomson, who had grown tired of losing money on it as a result of an extended period of industrial action that stopped publication. In the light of success and expansion at The Sun the owners believed that Murdoch could turn
7600-688: The student journal If Revived . Murdoch studied philosophy, politics and economics at Worcester College, Oxford , in England, where he kept a bust of Lenin in his rooms and came to be known as "Red Rupert". He was a member of the Oxford University Labour Party , stood for secretary of the Labour Club and managed Oxford Student Publications Limited , the publishing house of Cherwell . After his father's death from cancer in 1952, his mother did charity work as
7700-535: The then editor, Colin Myler, described it as "the greatest newspaper in the world" as it had won four awards at the British Press Awards. The award for News Reporter of the Year, went to Mazher Mahmood, the "fake sheikh" who hides his identity, for his exposé of corruption in the cricketing world. The paper also won top show-business reporter and magazine of the year. It was rumoured that NotW could even win
7800-427: The then- chief constable of Gloucestershire , Tony Butler. From the nineties until the newspaper’s demise in 2011, reporters at the paper used private investigators to illegally gain access to hundreds of mobile phone voicemail accounts held by a variety of people of interest to the newspaper. In 2007 the paper's royal correspondent, Clive Goodman , pleaded guilty to illegal interception of personal communication and
7900-457: The time the lecture was given. Nationality/citizenship is British unless stated otherwise. Rupert Murdoch Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other Keith Rupert Murdoch AC KCSG ( / ˈ m ɜːr d ɒ k / MUR -dok ; born 11 March 1931)
8000-430: The top award, Newspaper of the Year. It was announced on 7 July 2011 that, after 168 years in print, the newspaper would print its final edition on 10 July 2011 following revelations of the ongoing phone hacking scandal , with the loss of 200 jobs. The paper announced that all profits from the final edition – 74 pence out of the £1 cover price – would go to "good causes", and advertising space would be given to charities;
8100-708: The troubled Sunday Times in Perth , Western Australia (1956) and over the next few years acquiring suburban and provincial newspapers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory , including the Sydney afternoon tabloid The Daily Mirror (1960). The Economist describes Murdoch as "inventing the modern tabloid", as he developed a pattern for his newspapers, increasing sports and scandal coverage and adopting eye-catching headlines. Murdoch's first foray outside Australia involved
8200-459: The two before this point had been explicitly denied in an official history of The Times , documents found in Thatcher's archives in 2012 revealed a secret meeting had taken place a month before in which Murdoch briefed Thatcher on his plans for the paper, such as taking on trade unions. The Sun credited itself with helping her successor John Major to win an unexpected election victory in
8300-523: The way for the stronger Australian Labor Party to dominate Australian politics. It was the beginning of a long campaign that served McEwen well. After McEwen and Menzies retired, Murdoch threw his growing power behind the Australian Labor Party under the leadership of Gough Whitlam and duly saw it elected on a social platform that included universal free health care, free education for all Australians to tertiary level, recognition of
8400-493: The year. Launched in 2018 these include AHTV and The New Voice Awards which support emerging talent and self-starting creatives in TV and digital. The Festival is best known for its keynote address: the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture. The lecture features speeches from leading media figures connected with British and international television over more than 40 years. * All job titles as at
8500-400: Was 21, Murdoch returned from Oxford to take charge of what was left of the family business. After liquidation of his father's Herald stake to pay taxes, what was left was News Limited , which had been established in 1923. Rupert Murdoch turned its Adelaide newspaper, The News , its main asset, into a major success. He began to direct his attention to acquisition and expansion, buying
8600-666: Was already set to acquire 21st Century Fox. However, it was Comcast who won control of BSkyB in a blind auction ordered by the CMA. Murdoch ultimately sold his 39% of BSkyB to Comcast. News Corporation has subsidiaries in the Bahamas , the Cayman Islands , the Channel Islands and the Virgin Islands . From 1986, News Corporation's annual tax bill averaged around seven percent of its profits. In Britain, in
8700-573: Was also a News of the World Championship in snooker from 1950 to 1959 which eclipsed the official professionals' competition for a number of years. In athletics, the Emsley Carr Mile race was started in 1953 in memory of the former editor, and is still run annually. The paper's Football Annual was a long-standing publication (sponsoring it until 2008), and a Household Guide and Almanac was also published at one time. By 1950,
8800-522: Was also raided by police and he was arrested and charged with cannabis possession along with his friend Stanislas "Stash" Klossowski, son of French artist Balthus . Jagger and Richards were tried at the end of June. On 29 June, Jagger was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for possession of four amphetamine tablets; Richards was found guilty of allowing cannabis to be smoked on his property and sentenced to one year in prison. Both Jagger and Richards were imprisoned at that point, but were released on bail
8900-452: Was announced that the first edition of The Sun on Sunday would be printed on 26 February 2012. It would employ some former News of the World journalists. The newspaper was first published as The News of the World on 1 October 1843, by John Browne Bell in London. Priced at three pence (equal to £1.55 in 2023), even before the repeal of the Stamp act (1855) or paper duty (1861), it was
9000-510: Was born on 11 March 1931 in Melbourne , Victoria , the second of four children of Sir Keith Murdoch (1885–1952) and Dame Elisabeth ( née Greene ; 1909–2012). He is of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. His parents were also born in Melbourne. His father was a war correspondent and later a regional newspaper magnate, owning two newspapers in Adelaide , South Australia, and
9100-484: Was bought from the Carrs by Rupert Murdoch 's media firm News Limited . In 1984, as News Limited reorganised into News International , a subsidiary of News Corporation , the newspaper transformed into a tabloid and became the Sunday sister paper of The Sun . The News of the World concentrated in particular on celebrity scoops, gossip and populist news. Its somewhat prurient focus on sex scandals gained it
9200-560: Was found guilty of all five murders at his trial 14 months later and sentenced to life imprisonment . In 2002, Mazher Mahmood , an undercover reporter working for the News of the World , also known as the Fake Sheikh, allegedly exposed a plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham . Five men were arrested but the trial later collapsed when it emerged News of the World had paid its main witness Florim Gashi £10,000 to work with Mazher Mahmood. Florim Gashi later admitted working with Mahmood to set up
9300-456: Was governing in coalition with the larger Menzies-Holt-Gorton Liberal Party . From the first issue of The Australian, Murdoch began taking McEwen's side in every issue that divided the long-serving coalition partners. ( The Australian , 15 July 1964, first edition, front page: "Strain in Cabinet, Liberal-CP row flares.") It was an issue that threatened to split the coalition government and open
9400-416: Was heavily subsidised by the profits generated by his other holdings, but convinced rival satellite operator British Satellite Broadcasting to accept a merger on his terms in 1990. The merged company, BSkyB , has dominated the British pay-TV market ever since, pursuing direct to home (DTH) satellite broadcasting. By 1996, BSkyB had more than 3.6 million subscribers, triple the number of cable customers in
9500-465: Was in triumphant mood: The British counterculture and The News Of The World have had an adversarial relationship that goes back for almost half a century. I recall, way back in 1967, being beaten bloody by police outside the NOTW offices in London's Fleet Street while protesting the newspaper's part in the jailing of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger after the Redlands drug bust. And then there were
9600-476: Was jailed for four months; the paper's editor, Andy Coulson , had resigned two weeks earlier. In 2009/2010, further revelations emerged on the extent of the phone hacking, and how it was common knowledge within the News of the World and its News International parent. According to a former reporter at the paper, "Everyone knew. The office cat knew", about the illegal activities used to scoop stories. On 17 January 2011, The Guardian reported that Glenn Mulcaire,
9700-706: Was running vendettas against him and his government, Murdoch opined that Rudd was "oversensitive". Although News Limited's interests are extensive, also including the Daily Telegraph , the Courier-Mail and the Adelaide Advertiser , it was suggested by the commentator Mungo MacCallum in The Monthly that "the anti-Rudd push, if coordinated at all, was almost certainly locally driven" as opposed to being directed by Murdoch, who also took
9800-604: Was sold by the Bell family in 1891 to Henry Lascelles Carr who owned the Welsh Western Mail . As editor, he installed his nephew Emsley Carr , who held the post for 50 years. The real engine of the paper's now quick commercial success, however, was George Riddell , who reorganised its national distribution using local agents. Matthew Engel , in his book Tickle the Public: One Hundred Years of
9900-573: Was to become a political issue in Britain. This later changed, with The Sun , in its English editions, publicly renouncing the ruling Labour government and lending its support to David Cameron 's Conservative Party , which soon afterwards formed a coalition government. In Scotland, where the Conservatives had suffered a complete annihilation in 1997, the paper began to endorse the Scottish National Party (though not yet its flagship policy of independence), which soon after came to form
10000-530: Was valued at around £30,000. Other guests attending the "social events" included the then EU trade commissioner Lord Mandelson , the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and co-chairman of NBC Universal Ben Silverman . The Conservatives did not disclose what was discussed. News of the World The News of the World was a weekly national " red top " tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in
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