Young Rupert: The Making of the Murdoch Empire

Australian journalist Marsh debuts with a perceptive account of the first 30 years of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s life. Born in Melbourne in 1931 to Sir Keith Murdoch, a conservative newspaper magnate, Rupert became enamored with socialism while in grammar school and, while studying at Oxford University, “waged public battles against press monopolies and the old dinosaurs who ran them, argued passionately for socialism and the power of the union, and bristled at a political and media class captured in a feedback loop of power and patronage.” After Sir Keith died in 1952, Murdoch inherited his father’s media holdings and returned to Australia, where he partnered with editor Rohan Rivett and transformed the Adelaide-based tabloid the News into a lucrative powerhouse. In Marsh’s telling, Murdoch grew more conservative as he came to view the wages of his papers’ unionized workers as an impediment to financing the acquisition of new outlets and building his media empire, culminating in the firing of Rivett in 1960 for his prolabor sympathies. Thoroughly reported and novelistic in detail (secretary “Betty Gillen... walked into the editor-in-chief’s office, a bundle of letters in her hands and tears welling in her eyes. ‘It’s going to be a terrible shock to you,’ ” Gillen says, bringing Rivett news of his dismissal), this provides keen insight into the business magnate’s formative years. (Jan.)