News Corporation is a large global media conglomerate that owns numerous television stations, film studios, publishing houses, and other media assets. It was founded in 1952 by Rupert Murdoch and has since expanded significantly through acquisitions. Some of its strengths include its longevity in the industry, diverse media holdings, and leading publishing brands. However, it also faces weaknesses such as uncertainty around succession planning, reliance on Murdoch's leadership, and losses from some acquisitions. Opportunities exist in expanding into new markets and solving challenges in the print news industry, while threats include new technologies, economic downturns, and corporate rivalry.

1. +
News Corporation
History, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
and Threats by Michael Gordon, Kent Morrison,
Melelani Petersen, Yus Marto,

2. + News Corporation News Corporation is a media
conglomerate.
It is global and has a considerable market
share in just about every type of
media imaginable.
It own numerous broadcast television stations,
television production companies, motion
picture corporations, magazines, newspapers,
satellite, cable, book publishing, advertising,
digital broadcasting, and MySpace.
It has numerous peripheral holdings
such as sports teams.
It is the third largest media giant in
the world after Disney and Time Warner and
holds about $54 billion in assets.

3. 1952 – Rupert Murdoch inherits The
Adelaide News
Within a few years Murdoch has an
Australian newspaper empire
By the early 60s he has moved into New
Zealand
A few years later he buys The Sun and
News of the World in UK
1973 Murdoch enters the US market with
+ the purchase of the San Antonio Express
The History of News Corporation

4. +
1980 Murdoch consolidates
his US and Australian
holdings into News
Corporation
Next Murdoch buys the
influential UK newspapers
The Times and The Sunday
Times
Murdoch uses his media
empire to help politicians
who help him
Murdock becomes a US
citizen so he can diversify
his media holdings with
television and film

5. +
Murdoch enters the 90s
with huge debts and a
huge media empire – a
massive restructuring is
undertaken
The empire emerges stronger than ever and diversified into every type
of media including book publishing, satellite and cable. Murdoch buys
MySpace and puts newspapers online. His scheme of creating pay
portals for access to multiple websites’ content may be the future of
profitability online.

6. +
News Corps SWOT
Strengths

7. +
Longevity
n Rupert Murdoch is 80 years old and is close to stepping
down.
n Rupert wants to keep the company News Corps in the
bloodline.
n Rupert has two sons Lachlan and James, and workers feel
they are both capable to be head of the company.

8. +
Different Media
n Besides News, News Corps purchased different types of
Media.
n News Corps has operations Through U.S.
n News Corps is one of the biggest motion picture distributer.

9. +
Leading publisher
n News Corps is the leading publisher of the English-language.
n Four national news brands in the U.K.
n News Corps has a leading news app called “The Daily”.

10. +
Education
n News Corps has a major voice in education as priority to the
youth.

11. +
News Corps SWOT
Weaknesses

12. +
No clear succession plan
n No successor has ever been named
n Lachlan, the eldest son, seemed to be in line but left the
company and runs his own business in Australia
n James, the second son, is rising through the company and is a
favorite with investors and stockholders
n Murdoch has recently remarried a much younger woman and
had two children with her. She has been and business partner
and devoted wife and mother.

13. +
Murdoch is in sole control
n Murdoch has a history of not following sound business advice
n Murdoch bases many decisions on his own political and
personal opinions
n Murdoch’s media supports politicians who support him
n Murdoch’s media supported China’s policies when he was
wooing the Chinese government for access for his media
outlets and continue to do so

14. +
Acquisitions and start up costs are
creating losses
n Network ventures in Poland, Turkey, and Serbia have created
losses
n Recent purchases haven’t panned out, i.e., The Bit Ten
Network and Fox Business

15. +
Murdoch is determined to make
the internet profitable
n MySpace has fallen from its popular position and Facebook
continues to make inroads into their market share
n Murdoch’s decisions to charge for content have not always
been successful
n Murdoch is investing a lot of money into internet acquisitions
and start ups and may not sufficiently understand the
environment

16. +
News Corps SWOT
Opportunities

17. +
News Corp. expanding India’s
entertainment industry
n News Corporation through Star TV has expanded and
restructured in India
n They have branched into India’s movie industry
n Introduced pay television which has huge potential
considering the number of people in India
n Recently struck a deal with pay television in South Africa for
four of Star’s pay channels

18. +
News Corp. buying into gaming
industry
n Gaming is a huge market, particularly online gaming
n Murdoch sees gaming portals as a potentially huge profit
stream – one fee allows users to access multiple sites

19. +
News Corp. working to solve the
declining print news industry
n Murdoch started and built his empire from newspapers and
has never lost his passion for them
n Many of the newspapers have an online presence - online
readership continues to grow, subscribers continue to drop
n Murdoch launched pay for newspaper content with The New
York Times
n Intends to use the same model as gaming – one fee allows
access to multiple sites
n Continues to support more localized and ad centered papers
as well as tabloids

20. +
News Corp. wants green, but why?
n Murdoch claims that his corporation is now carbon neutral
n Viewed by critics as a move to counteract his conservative
bias and promote the corporation to new liberal audiences

21. +
News Corps SWOT
Threats

22. +
Rising Popularity of DVRs
n The
first threat to the growing network of News
Corp is the rise of DVR consumers. DVR impact
has been overestimated in the short term but
underestimated in the long term.
n Even
though its growth has been notably slow
since its introduction in the late ‘90s, the
increase of DVR adoption is steady every year.
n Viewers
also can skip 50% of advertisings with
certain DVRs, allowing them to watch pre-
recorded broadcast without browsing
limitations

23. +
Economic Slowdown in US
n The
continued migration of advertising to the
Internet and economic slowdown took a toll on
News Corp., where fourth-quarter revenue
declined by $100 million to $1.3 billion and
operating income declined 28 percent to $279
million.
n By2008, advertising revenue has fallen and
company's share price went down. News Corp.
is still facing a challenge to recover its past
years' success state.

24. +
New Technology Has Cut the Profit
Revenue for Printed Media
With the advancement of technology nowadays, media
n
interests have been redirected from printed publishing to
live streaming.
The rise of GoGreen campaigns around the world also
n
change people’s opinion on printed media in general, as it
takes with it the massacre of huge number of trees.

25. +
Corporate Rivalry: John Malone's
Liberty Media
n On
Friday, 22 December 2006, Rupert
Murdoch, chief executive of News Corporation
neutered a threat to his control of News Corp.
with a $11 billion asset swap to eliminate 16%
stake in his news empire held by rival tycoon
John Malone's Liberty Media.
n Liberty
was also given 38% control share in
DirecTV, which is the top ranking television
service in America.