Building News Corporation global media empire
Appears in 1 documentary
Keith Rupert Murdoch transformed the global media landscape through seven decades of aggressive expansion, building News Corporation into one of the world’s largest media conglomerates. Born in Melbourne in 1931 to newspaper publisher Keith Murdoch, he inherited both a modest Australian media empire and an insatiable appetite for acquisition that would reshape how information flows across continents.
Murdoch’s ascent began in 1952 when he took control of his father’s struggling Adelaide newspaper at age 21. What followed was a methodical conquest of media markets, first across Australia, then Britain, and finally America. His formula was consistent: acquire underperforming properties, slash costs, sensationalize content, and maximize profits. By the 1960s, he had revolutionized British tabloid journalism with The Sun, turning it into the country’s best-selling newspaper through provocative headlines and celebrity gossip.
The pattern repeated in America after 1973, when Murdoch began purchasing newspapers and television stations. His 1985 acquisition of 20th Century Fox marked his entry into Hollywood, followed by the launch of Fox Broadcasting Company in 1986—breaking the decades-old stranglehold of ABC, CBS, and NBC on American television. Each expansion required him to navigate complex regulations, often becoming a U.S. citizen in 1985 specifically to comply with media ownership laws.
Murdoch’s most spectacular miscalculation came during the internet’s early years. In 2005, recognizing the threat digital platforms posed to traditional media, he paid $580 million for MySpace—then the world’s dominant social network with over 100 million users. The purchase seemed visionary: a traditional media baron successfully pivoting to digital.
Instead, it became a cautionary tale about corporate overreach. Murdoch’s News Corporation treated MySpace like a traditional media property, cramming it with intrusive advertisements and corporate synergies. The platform’s customizable, chaotic aesthetic—beloved by teenagers and musicians—was gradually sanitized. Meanwhile, a cleaner, more organized competitor called Facebook was gaining ground among college students.
The exodus was swift and brutal. Users fled to Facebook in massive numbers, and by 2011, Murdoch sold MySpace for just $35 million—a staggering 94% loss that represented one of the largest corporate write-downs in internet history. The failure revealed the limitations of applying traditional media strategies to social platforms, where user experience trumped advertising revenue.
Murdoch’s influence extends far beyond business metrics. He fundamentally altered political discourse by demonstrating how media could shape elections and policy. Fox News, launched in 1996, pioneered the concept of partisan cable news, while his newspapers consistently endorsed conservative politicians across three countries. His properties’ support proved crucial in elections from Margaret Thatcher’s Britain to Donald Trump’s America.
The MySpace debacle, rather than diminishing his legacy, illuminated broader truths about digital transformation. It showed that even the most successful traditional media executives could misunderstand the internet’s social dynamics. More importantly, it demonstrated how quickly dominant platforms could collapse—a lesson later applied to Facebook’s own struggles with newer competitors.
At 93, Murdoch remains executive chairman of News Corp and Fox Corporation, controlling assets worth billions while grooming succession plans. His seven-decade career spans from Australia’s post-war newspaper industry to today’s streaming wars, making him perhaps the only media executive to successfully navigate multiple technological revolutions—even if he stumbled during one crucial transition.
The definitive account of how Murdoch's traditional media approach destroyed the world's largest social network.
An intimate portrait of Murdoch's business philosophy and the personality that built a global media empire.
In 2006, MySpace was the most visited website in America — bigger than Google. Rupert Murdoch bought it for $580 million. He stuffed it with ads until users fled to Facebook. Five years later, he sold it for $35 million. A 94% loss. The man who killed MySpace was not Mark Zuckerberg. It was Rupert Murdoch.