Rupert Murdoch’s empire

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire took a small hit July 13 when News Corp. announced that it would drop its bid for full control of British Sky Broadcasting. Here’s a look at the rest of the media mogul’s business ventures over the years.

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Executives of the New York Post gather in the editor's office on Oct. 4, 1978, to confer on post-strike publication. Printing pressmen went on strike in August when their contracts ran out, disrupting operations at the three New York daily papers. The New York Post was the first to reach an agreement with pressmen. From left are: Rupert Murdoch, publisher and head of News Corp.; Roger Wood, editor; Peter Michel More, metropolitan editor, and Robert Costello, director of advertising and sales promotion.

Howard / AP

In 1981, Murdoch, center, expanded his media empire when he bought the Times of London and Sunday Times newspapers. Pictured are, from left, Harold Evans, editor, Sunday Times, Murdoch and Times editor William Rees-Mogg.

/ AP

Murdoch poses with a Sky television camera during the launch of his multi-channel package in central London in September 1993. Sky's new package gave viewers a choice of more than 20 channels, including six new ones. News Corp. holds a sizeable stake in the company.

Martin Cleaver / AP

Fox Chairman Murdoch gestures during a news conference in February 1995. Fox, embroiled in a dispute over whether it misled federal regulators when it set out to build a new television network a decade ago, insisted that it had clearly laid out its ownership structure at the time.

Clark Jones / AP

Japan's Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son left, Asahi Newspaper President Muneyuki Matsushita, center, and News Corp. President Rupert Murdoch, right, smile as they shake hands after a news conference at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in March 1997. Softbank and its partner News Corp. announced that they would sell their jointly-held 21.4 percent stake in a leading Japanese television broadcaster to Japan's leading newspaper.

Toru Yamanaka / AFP

Former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley, left, and new owner Rupert Murdoch look over the playing field during Opening Day in Los Angeles, April 7, 1998. The Fox Group purchased the ballclub earlier in the year.

John Soohoo / AP

Murdoch, right, tosses a football from the podium during listing ceremonies for Fox Entertainment Group at the New York Stock Exchange, Nov. 13, 1998. Looking on are Arthur Siskind, left, News Corp. senior executive vice president, and NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso.

David Karp / AP

Another popular arm of the News Corp. family is American Idol. The TV series is preparing for its 11th season.

Kevork Djansezian / AP

Murdoch walks past a News Corp. sign after chairing the company's annual general meeting in Australia in October 2004. News Corp. shareholders were expected to vote in support of Murdoch's plans to move his media empire's headquarters to the United States.

William West / AFP/Getty Images

An office of the Wall Street Journal is seen May 4, 2007, in New York. Murdoch made an offer to buy the paper's publisher Dow Jones & Co. for $5 billion dollars.

Chris Hondros / Getty Images

Murdoch speaks at the company's Global Energy Initiative on May 9, 2007, in New York. News Corp. reported a 6.2 percent profit rise for its latest quarter on higher earnings from movies including "Night at the Museum" and growth in cable TV networks. News Corp., which owns Twentieth Century Fox, the Fox broadcast network, Fox News Channel, newspapers in the U.K. and Australia and MySpace, had a strong third fiscal quarter.

Mark Lennihan / AP

Murdoch addresses a crowded Wall Street Journal newsroom on Dec. 13, 2007. Murdoch's $5 billion-plus bid for Dow Jones & Co. cleared its final hurdle as shareholders of the financial publishing company gave their approval.

Mark Lennihan / AP

Copies of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post are pictured in a newsstand in June 2007.

Keith Bedford / Reuters

Murdoch walks on stage with an iPad for the launch of his online newspaper for the iPad called The Daily, Feb. 2, 2011, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

The Daily is offered only in Apple's iPad App Store.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

A customer buys a copy of "News of the World" from a newspaper vendor in central London. Britain's best-selling Sunday tabloid signed off July 10 with a simple front page message, "Thank You & Goodbye," leaving the media establishment here reeling from the expanding phone-hacking scandal that brought down the muckraking newspaper after 168 years.

Sang Tan / AP

On July 13, News Corp. announced it would drop its bid for full control of British Sky Broadcasting as the phone-hacking scandal roiled British politics.

Mark Lennihan / AP

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