News Corporation

Building a Newspaper Empire

In 1952, Rupert Murdoch inherited the Adelaide News, the last major remnant of his father’s Australian newspaper chain, and set about rebuilding it under the control of the family-owned company, News Limited. He bought up titles in major cities and launched the country’s first national newspaper, The Australian, in 1964. His ambition, however, was to expand into the two major English-language press markets, in Britain and the United States.

Murdoch had learned the newspaper business after graduating from Oxford University through a placement at the Daily ...