NEWS CORP;

News Corporation is the globe’s leading publisher of English-language newspapers, with operations in the UK, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the U.S. The Newspaper segment includes News International, which publishes four national newspapers in the U.K.; News Limited, which publishes more than 110 national, capital city and suburban newspapers in Australia; and the New York Post in the U.S.

Molded under the watchful eye of Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. continues to evolve and serve as a model for the modern vertically integrated media conglomerate. Aided by the acquisition of 20th Century film studio, News Corp. went from primarily a newspaper company in Australia and England to an influential force in American media. The Fox Network broke ground in the late 1980s as the first successful broadcast network to break through against the powerful Big 3. Recently, viewership for its Fox News Network surpassed the once formidable CNN. This proved to be another sign that American viewers favor News Corp.'s irreverent style.

1910s
1915 - William Fox leads successful fight against Thomas Edison's Motion Pictures Patents Company. The Patents Company is dissolved in the face of anti-trust legislation.
1930s
1931 (March 11) - Rupert Keith Murdoch is born in Australia. Father, Keith Murdoch, is an established newspaper man in the country
1935 - Century Pictures and Fox Film merge to form 20th Century-Fox
1950s
1952 - Murdoch inherits Adelaide News, an Australian mid-size daily, and the Adelaide Sunday Mail
1960s
1960 - - Murdoch's Australian newspaper holdings increase with the acquisition of Cumberland Newspapers, and Mirror Newspapers, Ltd., publishers of Sydney's Daily and Sunday Mirror
1964 - Murdoch launches The Australian as the first national newspaper
1969 - Murdoch takes over News of the World and launches London Sun
1970s
1972 - Murdoch purchases Sydney Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
1973 - Murdoch purchases his first newspaper in the U.S. - San Antonio Express and News
1974 - Enters the supermarket tabloid business by launching The National Star
1977 - Murdoch buys New York Post for $30 million from liberal socialite Dorothy Schiff. He continues his New York buying spree by purchasing New York magazine, Village Voice and New West from Clay Felker
1979 - Diversifies by acquiring Ansett Transport Industries which owns Melbourne TV station, Channel 10. Australia modifies media ownership laws to allow the deal. Critics call the move "The Murdoch Amendments"
1980s
1980 - News Corp. forms
1981 - Takes over Times and Sunday Times in London
1982 - Buys the Boston Herald-American and changes the name to Boston Herald. News Corp. also buys Australian book publisher Angus & Robertson
1983 - Sky, the first satellite TV channel launches. News Corp. buys Chicago Sun Times for $90 million
1984 - Murdoch and News Corp. make take over bid of Warner Brothers but are thwarted
1985 - Murdoch becomes United States citizen in order to purchase more American media outlets. Sells Village Voice. News Corp. buys TCF Holdings Inc., parent company of Twentieth Century Fox Film. In a related deal, News Corp. purchases seven television stations from Metromedia for $1.55 billion (WNEW-TV, New York; KTTV-TV, Los Angeles; WFLD-TV, Chicago; WTTG-TV, Washington, DC; KNBN-TV, Dallas; KRIV-TV, Houston, WFXT-TV in Boston. These stations reach 22% of all television households in the United States. These two deals help to form backbone of a new broadcast television network
1986 - Fox Broadcasting Company is established. News Corp. moves its UK newspaper printing operations to new plant in Wapping. A protracted labor strike ensues. Murdoch sells Chicago Sun-Times
1987 - Takes control Melbourne Herald and Weekly Times, Australia's largest media group. News Corp. becomes world's largest newspaper publisher. News Corp. also purchases the South China Morning Post, UK newspaper Today and United States book publisher Harper and Row. Murdoch now controlled approximately sixty percent of Australian newspapers and thirty-five percent of UK newspapers
1988 - Purchases Triangle Publications (main holding TV Guide) from Walter Annenberg for $3 billion. Sells off New York Post
1989 - Harper Collins is formed after newly acquired William Collins Publishing is merged with Harper and Row. The Simpsons becomes Fox Network's first hit program. Satellite television provider Sky TV is launched.
1990s
1990 - - BSkyB is formed after Sky merges with British Satellite Broadcasting. Accumulation of large debts leads News Corp. down the road to bankruptcy. Citibank, the company's prime lender, takes active role in saving News Corp.
1991 - News Corp. undergoes massive sell off to help lower corporate debt. The properties sold off include: New York, Seventeen, Soap Opera Digest, Soap Opera Weekly, Premiere, and Daily Racing Form
1992 - Buys broadcasting rights for the Premier League, an Australian rugby league, for $300 million
1993 - Gains controlling interest in Asian satellite television service, Star TV. Acquires the right to broadcast NFL games. The move shakes up American sports television as it leaves the NBC network without football coverage. Obtaining the NFL broadcasting rights costs over $1 billion but seen as a necessary investment to help promote fledging Fox Network. News Corp. reacquires New York Post
1996 - HarperCollins sells its education unit to Pearson
1997 - Acquires Los Angeles Dodgers and Dodgers stadium from the O'Malley family for $311 million
1998 - Orders HarperCollins to squash the memoirs of Chris Patten, Hong Kong's last governor and vocal critic of the Communist China government
1999 - Acquires William Morrow and Avon Books in a deal with Hearst
2000 - Present
2001 - Sells stake in Fox Family Network to Disney. Duopolies established in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Washington D.C., and Houston
2002 - Duopolies established in Chicago and Orlando
2003 - Puts LA Dodgers up for sale. Spends $6.6 billion for stake in Hughes Electronic, the parent company of DirecTV
2004 - Los Angeles Dodgers sold to real estate developer Frank McCourt for $430 million

United Kingdom
News International
News of the World
The Sun
The Sunday Times
The Times
Times Literary Supplement

news of the world
the sun
20th century fox
sky
my space

Revenue for the year ended June 30, 2005 was US$23.859 billion. This does not include News Corporation's share of the revenue of businesses in which it owns a minority stake, which include two of its most important assets, DirecTV and BSkyB. Almost 70% of the company's sales come from its US businesses.

Media Monopoly - News Corporation is often accused of using the combined power of its consolidated media assets to push out rivals and push towards a media monopoly. An example of an accusation would be News Corporation's attempt to buy the football club Manchester United. In 1998 News Corp bid GB£623.4 million for the UK-based football club. Its fans were outraged and raised the question of an encroaching monopoly, as News Corporation owned the rights to broadcast all Premier League matches, of which Manchester United was one. It was alleged that by controlling Manchester United, News Corporation could influence the decisions about the selling of the rights to broadcast all Premier League matches.

Political Bias - Rupert Murdoch and Fox News have often been accused by media observers and the public of flagrant conservative bias. Attention is most often drawn to Fox News' coverage of the buildup to the Iraq invasion, which portrayed Saddam Hussein's possession of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' as a certainty, and his intention to use them as an inevitability. Coverage of the ensuing invasion barely mentioned opposition to the war either in America or Iraq.
Further, Fox News and Rupert Murdoch periodically dispute these allegations of conservative bias.[citation needed] Many examples detailing this can be found in the documentary "OutFoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" released in 2004.