Rupert Murdoch goes platinum; and media stocks recover… a bit
Welcome to a midweek edition of Unmade. Today: Marking 70 years since Rupert Murdoch inherited the empire, and the great media stock rally.
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Exactly 70 years ago last night, Keith Arthur Murdoch prepared for an early bedtime at the family’s much loved homestead of Cruden Farm in the Victorian suburb of Langwarrin.
It had been a stressful week in which the board of the Herald & Weekly Times, chaired by Sir Keith, had sacked managing editor Jack Williams.
Williams had been challenging Sir Keith’s push for growth including the forthcoming launch of TV station HSV-7 Melbourne and had concluded that Sir Keith was promoting his own interests ahead of shareholders. The board, recognising the company’s success, had backed their chairman.
That Saturday – October 4, 1952 – Sir Keith had skipped his usual habit of starting the weekend in the office and instead travelled with his wife Elisabeth back to Cruden Farm.
They had spent the pleasant spring day day talking of the future. They agreed that the following year, he would retire, and they would live there permanently. Already on the agenda was a trip to London. A few months earlier King George VI had passed, and they planned to be in the UK for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Oldest son Rupert, studying overseas at Oxford University in England, was finally shaping up as potential successor. Just as they are now, the UK political parties were in conference season. Rupert had attended the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool and had written an incisive letter home about what he had observed.
“I think the boy’s got it,” Dame Elisabeth would later recall as Sir Keith’s reaction to the letter that day. Until then, he’d had his doubts Rupert had the talents or interest to one day run the family business.
At the end of the relaxed Saturday, Sir Keith took off his wristwatch and placed it on the bedside table before lying back on the pillows. “Then with a slight tremor that shook his body, he lay back and died, without pain or forewarning,” Dame Elisabeth said later.
Unlike the instant ascension of royalty, it took longer for Rupert Murdoch to take official control of the empire via the probate process. But in practical terms, today marks the day when 70 years ago, Rupert Murdoch began to build the biggest newspaper empire of all time. It’s his platinum anniversary.
Sir Keith had left an estate valued at £358,852 – a few million in today’s money. This included a 50 per cent holding in Adelaide-based News Limited, which owned afternoon paper The News, along with a shareholding in the Queensland Press newspaper group. In his will, Keith Murdoch urged his trustees to put Rupert in charge of the newspapers.
Rupert reached an early agreement with the board of the HWT to buy out the family’s Queensland and Herald interests at a premium, giving him a base after paying taxes to build News Limited in Adelaide.
After a few months back at Oxford to wrap up his degree, the 22-year-old Rupert became managing director of The News and Sunday Mail.
And the rest, as they say, is history. Adelaide became Australia and then eventually the world.
It’s been an amazing 70-year career that will never be repeated in media.
At some point, obituaries on Rupert Murdoch will be published. I wrote a first draft about a decade ago, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m polishing it for another decade yet. Although Sir Keith died young at 67, Dame Elisabeth made it to 103. Rupert is now 91.
Just as the Queen was a permanent fixture for her subjects around the world, for at least two generations of media workers, Rupert Murdoch has been a constant presence, whether we’ve been employed by him or not.
He invented, or at least reinvented, the modern tabloid newspaper, which reached its zenith, or possibly its nadir, in the News of the World in London .
He created a newspaper empire which has shaped the culture of the English speaking world.
He refined the use of the power and influence of his newspapers to get what he wanted in business.
He confronted the unions to create a new publishing model which ensured the survival of the newspaper industry
He used sport to create the pay television phenomenon.
He made newspaper paywalls work when nobody else thought he would succeed.
He saw streaming coming and sold most of his TV and film interests to Disney at the top of the market.
And yet, when the obituaries are written, they’ll be more polarised than for any other individual.
Through the likes of Fox News and many of his newspapers, culture wars have been inflamed. For every act of investigation or local service journalism there’s another example of negative influence on society.
Craven politicians around the world have given media owners more power and influence than they should be entitled to, and that includes Rupert Murdoch. The News Media Bargaining Code legislation which strong armed Facebook and Google into subsidising Australian newspapers was a grubby, grubby way of achieving a good outcome for journalism. It wouldn’t have happened without Murdoch’s influence over a compromised Coalition.
Donald Trump may never have become president without Fox News. And the influence of Fox News has been cited as a factor in the January 6 Capitol attack in the US.
Over the last 70 years, no single person has shaped how the world looks more than Rupert Murdoch.
The direction of News Corp and Fox Corporation (owner of Fox News) after Rupert, remains more in the balance than it may seem. Lachlan Murdoch is the offspring who remains within the company and by all account holds a similar political world view to his father. He’s seen as the obvious successor. But Lachlan’s oldest siblings – Elisabeth, James and Prudence – will be able to outvote Lachlan if they wish.
That one will play out at some point.
For now though, even Rupert Murdoch’s many haters must acknowledge that what he’s build over 70 years is truly remarkable.
Unmade Index: The bounce
The share market finds its joy where it can these days. And yesterday, that joy was to be found in the Reserve Bank only putting up interest rates by 0.25%.
Exuberant traders concluded – perhaps without much evidence – that this means inflation will soon peak. As a result, the ASX All Ords rose by 3.74%. And the Unmade Index of listed media and marketing companies did even better, shooting up by 4.57%, the biggest one day jump since we created the index at the start of the year.
Yesterday’s biggest winner was the Nine-aligned real estate platform Domain, up by 7.35%, taking its market capitalisation back above $2bn.
Seven West Media wasn’t far behind, rising by 6.02%, not quite enough to crawl back above a $700m market cap.
Outside of the index, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has improved by 4.7% over the last five days, although it’s still down by 22.8% for the year. The company’s current market cap is US$9.59bn.
Time to let you get on with your Wednesday.
We’ll be back tomorrow with a look at the FutureBrand Index, and on Friday with coverage of the Ten Upfront event in Sydney.
Have a great day.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
