The Murdoch factor: The key qualities that drove his success
Piers Morgan, Nick Davies, Roy Greenslade, Dominic Mohan, Emily Bell, Liz Gerard and others share their insights on the secrets behind Rupert Murdoch's success
Good morning and welcome to your weekly Future of Media newsletter from Press Gazette on Thursday, 28 September, brought to you this week in association with Glide Publishing Platform - the CMS for publishers. Glide's guides for publishing, product, and technology teams to make best use of headless CMS are available for download now.
I suspect there are few of us who would aspire to be as rich and powerful as Rupert Murdoch. Who has the time for all that?
But who wouldn't want a little of what he has, the X Factor which has made him the most powerful media leader of the modern age?
As he signals his intention to step back from direct control of News Corp, we asked some of his closest former lieutenants (and also some of his fiercest critics) to sum up what they think ‘the Murdoch factor’ is.
What follows are some never-before-shared insights into the qualities that enabled him to build a $100bn empire on the basis of that most uncertain and fickle of commodities: news.
We've divided our survey of ‘the Murdoch factor’ into two parts:
Part one hears from insiders like former News of the World editor Piers Morgan, former Sun editors Stuart Higgins and Dominic Mohan, and long-time loyalists like Stuart Kuttner. For them, Murdoch appears to have been feared and respected in equal measure. A leader who combined forensic attention to detail with an ability to let local bosses "run their own show".
Part two hears from outsiders and critics like investigative journalist Nick Davies who nearly brought down the entire empire with his exposure of the hacking scandal. Liz Gerard, Emily Bell, Ian Burrell and Roy Greenslade are among those who share their insights into a man many believe based his success on an ability to trade editorial influence for political power.
Seasoned media business watcher Colin Morrison also shares his view on the strategic genius of someone who has probably invested more in journalism than any other individual in history.
We also share unique analysis to reveal the editorial priorities of different publishers.
Only 6% of website lead stories on the Mirror were about the Ukraine war over the summer versus 53% of those on the BBC News website, according to the analysis.
Meanwhile, Mail Online looks like the most frequently updated home page with at least seven changes of lead story per day.
If your journalism has made a difference over the last year you have just two days left to enter your work in the Press Gazette British Journalism Awards 2023.
See the full list of categories here.
Or go directly to the entry portal here.
Remember if you are from a previously under-represented group at these awards (which includes women, the disabled and those in minority ethnic groups) you can enter for free if your employer won’t pay.
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“Rupert is an intensely complex man and can juggle and multi-task like no one else I know.”
Nick Davies, Peter Jukes, Roy Greenslade and more on ‘the Murdoch factor’
“He is outstandingly greedy, and his gluttonous appetite for money has forced him to develop the quality which he needed to succeed – an utterly amoral ruthlessness.”
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Our latest podcast
Podcast 57: What is the Murdoch Factor?
Press Gazette editor in chief Dominic Ponsford discusses ‘the Murdoch factor’ with Peter Jukes (author of Fall of the House of Murdoch and co-founder of Byline Times). What is the key quality which has enabled Murdoch’s success and what does the future of media look like without him?
