News Corp

(BUSINESS & MEDIA) 3rd largest media holding company in the world; US holdings include Fox News, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and Dow Jones; in the UK, News of the World, *The Sun*, *The Sunday Times*, & The Times (London); and a couple dozen papers in Australia, plus Sky Broadcasting. News Corp also owns HarperCollins & 20th Century Fox. News Corp is fairly aggressive for a holding company in actually imposing a unified strategy and brand identity on its holdings. It was created by Rupert Murdoch from News, LTD. (a firm created by Murdoch's father, Sir Keith) in 1979, a few years after he went on a media buying spree in the USA. Murdoch became a US citizen so he could legally own US TV stations. The Murdoch family owns 29% of News Corp; Saudi Prince Al-Walid bin Talal owns 7%. News Corp launched Fox News in 1996 to compete with CNN; shortly before this, News Corp also launched the neoconservative magazine *The Weekly Standard* with William Kristol as its editor.