![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/who-is-rupert-murdoch/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/131219220_gettyimages-1132383737.jpg&description=Image source, Getty Images Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chairman of Fox and News Corp, seemingly heralding the end of a career as one of the world's most influential media tycoons. Revered as a businessman for his ruthlessness and energy, he has helped shape the media landscape in the UK, US and Australia with his ownership of powerful newspapers such as the Sun and the Times and broadcasters such as Sky and Fox News. However, the 92-year-old is also seen as a controversial figure and has attracted his share of scandal. In 2011 he was forced to close down the UK's biggest newspaper, the News of the World, after it became mired in allegations of phone hacking. His papers have also been accused of distorting the news to ensure his political allies won elections. Born in Melbourne in 1931, Murdoch developed an interest in the media at a young age. While at Oxford University in the UK he tried to buy the student newspaper and flirted with left-wing politics - putting a bust of Lenin on his mantelpiece and canvassing for the country's Labour party. His father Sir Keith Murdoch, one of Australia's most distinguished newspapermen, died in 1953 and left the family a controlling share of a single newspaper, the Adelaide News. Rupert returned from Britain to run it aged 22. He quickly expanded the business, buying a string of other titles in Australia and New Zealand and growing their circulation by employing racy tabloid techniques imported from the UK. He was known to personally write headlines and redesign pages, although he claimed he gave editors a great deal of freedom. "The only ones who claim I don't are the ones who don't know how to use it," he once said. Image source, Getty Images Image caption, But Murdoch's ambitions were global. In 1968, he bought the UK's News of the World and within a year had picked up the ailing Sun newspaper, relaunching it as an irreverent tabloid. Circulation soared thanks to its sex-and-sensation formula and it went on to became Br){kind=link}
Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chairman of Fox and News Corp, seemingly heralding the end of a career as one of the world’s most influential media tycoons.
Revered as a businessman for his ruthlessness and energy, he has helped shape the media landscape in the UK, US and Australia with his ownership of powerful newspapers such as the Sun and the Times and broadcasters such as Sky and Fox News.
However, the 92-year-old is also seen as a controversial figure and has attracted his share of scandal.
In 2011 he was forced to close down the UK’s biggest newspaper, the News of the World, after it became mired in allegations of phone hacking.
His papers have also been accused of distorting the news to ensure his political allies won elections.