Young Rupert: the making of the Murdoch empire

For half a century, the Murdoch media empire and its polarising patriarch have swept across the globe, shaking up markets and democracies in their wake. But how did it all start?

In September 1953, 22-year-old Rupert Murdoch landed in Adelaide, South Australia. Fresh from Oxford with a radical reputation, the young and brash son of Sir Keith Murdoch had arrived to fulfill his fathers dying wish: for Rupert to live a useful, altruistic, and full life in the media.

For decades, Sir Keith had been a giant of the Australian press, but his final years were spent bitterly fending off rivals and would-be successors. When the dust settled on his fathers estate, Rupert was left with the Adelaide-based News Ltd and its afternoon paper The News a minor player in a small, parochial city. 

But even this inheritance was soon under siege, as the left-wing Boy Publisher stared down his fathers old colleagues at the citys paper of record, The Advertiser, and a conservative establishment kept in power by a decades-old gerrymander. 

Led by Ruperts friend, ally, and editor-in-chief Rohan Rivett, the fledgling Murdoch press began a seven-year campaign of circulation wars, expansion, and courtroom battles that divided the city and would lay the foundations for a global empire if Rupert and Rohan didnt end up in custody first. 

Drawing on unpublished archival material and new reportage, Young Rupert pieces together a paper trail of succession, sedition, and power and a fascinating time capsule of Australian media on the cusp of an extraordinary ascension.