| overview
landmarks
related:
Murdoch
|
landmarks
This
chronology is indicative only.
Context is provided by the broader communications and
media timeline.
precursors
1788 London Daily Universal Register becomes The
Times
1840 Port Philip Herald first published
by George Cavanagh
1846 Moreton Bay Courier launched by Arthur Lyon
and James Swan
1846 Melbourne Argus founded
1849 Herald becomes daily as Port Philip
Morning Herald
1853 Herald produced on steam press
1854 Melbourne Australasian founded
1855 becomes Melbourne Herald and then The
Herald
1861 Moreton Bay Courier becomes The Courier
1864 Thomas Blackett Stephens acquires The Courier, changes
name to Brisbane Courier
1868 acquires Queensland Guardian
1869 Herald becomes evening paper
1869 The Weekly Times first published
1871 acquired by partnership headed by Samuel Winter (editor)
and John Halfey
1880 daily circulation reaches 30,000
1885 Keith Murdoch born in Melbourne
1892 Herald buys Melbourne Daily Telegraph and
The Weekly Times
1896 The Herald & Standard Newspaper Company Ltd established
as part of acquisition of evening Standard
establishment
1902 Herald & Weekly Times incorporated as public
company with authorised capital of £250,000
1903 Keith Murdoch begins work for the Age
1907 Rothermere buys The
Times
1908 Murdoch spends two years in Fleet Street
1915 becomes manager of United Cable Service, Australian
news service based in London
1915 Murdoch's reports on Gallipoli lead to dismissal
of Ian Hamilton, British commander in the Dardanelles
1919 establishment of Gordon and Gotch Australasia
Ltd
1921 Keith becomes Editor-in-Chief of Herald,
which becomes highest circulation paper in Australasia
1922 Hugh Denison's Sun Newspaper
Company (est 1910) launches Melborne Sun News-Pictorial
1922 Murdoch & H&WT fail in bid for control of
Sydney Evening News
1922 launches Melbourne Sporting Globe
1923 The Sunday Mail launched in Brisbane
1924 H&WT buys Melbourne Punch
1925 buys and closes Denison's
Melbourne Evening Sun, competitor to Herald
1925 H&WT buys Sun's Victorian interests, Sun
News-Pictorial becomes highest-circulating Australian
daily
1926 Melbourne Punch folded into Table Talk
1926 Murdoch, WL Baillieu, WS Robinson and H&WT buy
controlling stake - later sold - in West Australian,
form West Australian Newspapers (WAN)
1927 buys Melbourne daily Morning Star (launched
1925 by Victorian Farmers Union)
1928 Murdoch, H&WT and others buy ailing Adelaide
Register (closed 1932)
1929 buys Melbourne radio station 3DB
1929 Murdoch, Fink, W.L. Baillieu and H&WT buy
Adelaide Advertiser from Bonython family for
£1m
1931 H&WT buys controlling interest in Adelaide
evening News
1931 Rupert Keith Murdoch born in Melbourne
1933 Keith Murdoch knighted, becomes principal owner of
Brisbane Courier
1933 Courier merges with Brisbane Mail
1933 Melbourne Argus launches evening Star
1935 Australian Associated Press formed
1936 Melbourne Star closes
1938
Australian Newsprint Mills formed
1939 Table Talk closes
1940
Murdoch becomes Australia's wartime Director-General of
Information
1941 Ezra Norton founds Sydney Daily Mirror
1949 Murdoch buys majority interest in Adelaide News
from H&WT
1949 London Daily Mirror buys Melbourne Argus
1952 Rupert Murdoch graduates from Oxford, having
spent summers working in Fleet
Street
1952 Sir Keith Murdoch dies, most of holdings sold
in Australia
1954
Rupert Murdoch takes over Adelaide News
1956 H&WT launches HSV-7 commercial
television station
1957 gains control of Melbourne Argus, inc stake
in GTV-9
1957 sells GTV-9 shares to Sir Arthur Warner's Electronic
Industries
1957 closes Melbourne Argus
1960 Electronic Industries acquired by PYE, which sells
62% stake in GTV-9 to Packer
for £3.76m
1960 Murdoch buys NSW suburban newspaper chain Cumberland
Newspapers (24 papers)
1960 buys Sydney Daily Mirror and Melbourne and
Brisbane Truth
1962 buys 25% share in Packer-controlled
Nine Network stations in Sydney and Melbourne,
and Wollongong television station
1963 Thomson buys the Sunday
Times
1964 Murdoch launches The Australian
1963 Thomson buys The
Times
1964 Herald reaches peak daily circulation of
500,000
1964 News buys 24% of Wellington Publishing (later Independent
Newspapers or INL - New Zealand's
largest media company), subsequently increased to 49%
1969 Murdoch beats off Maxwell
in fight for UK News of the World and The
Sun
into WA
1969 H&WT buys West Australian Newspapers Ltd (WAN)
1970
Murdoch buys stake in London Weekend Television (sold
1979)
1972 buys Sydney Daily Telegraph and Sunday
Telegraph
1972 Herald & Weekly Times buys Crawford Productions
1973 Hector Crawford buys back Crawford Productions
1973 Murdoch enters US market with purchase of San Antonio
Express and News
1976 buys the New York Post from Dorothy Schiff
for US$30m
1976 buys New York magazine, Village Voice
and New West magazine for US$26m
1976 buys The Times, Sunday Times and associated
papers from Thomson for £12m
1977 sells WIN-TV, buys stake in TEN Sydney
1979 Murdoch makes unsuccessful bid for H&WT
1979 gains control of Channel Ten
Melbourne and 50% of Ansett Transport Industries (defeating
Holmes a Court bid for ATI)
1980 News Corporation established
1981 sells Berrows group (inc Worcester Journal)
to Reed
1982 Hector Crawford sells 40% of Crawford Productions
to Herald & Weekly Times and 10% to Gordon & Gotch
1982 Murdoch buys Boston Herald
1983 buys Chicago Sun-Times for US$90m
1984 sells interests in Reuters
during public float
1985 establishes aircraft leasing division, Ansett World
Wide Aviation Services, with partner TNT
1985 buys TCF Holdings (parent company of Twentieth Century
Fox Film)
1985 buys seven US television stations from Metromedia
for US$2bn to form Fox Television
1985 sells the Village Voice
1985 becomes US citizen in line with regulations barring
foreign ownership of television stations
1986 moves London newspapers to new facilities in Wapping
final days
1986 H&WT buys Hobart Mercury
1986 closes Melbourne Saturday Weekend Herald
1986 Murdoch launches Fox television network in US
1986 News Corp listed on New York Stock Exchange
1987 Robert Holmes a Court's Bell
makes unsuccessful raid on H&WT
1987 Murdoch gains control of H&WT
for $1.8bn
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