News Corporation and Bauer Media

 I will be Researching the Structure and Ownership of 2 large Media Conglomerates: News Corporation and Bauer Media.

News Corporation is a large media Conglomerate; it’s the 2^nd largest media conglomerate in the world as of 2011 based on revenue and the world’s 3^rd largest based on entertainment.  Rupert Murdoch is the founder and Current CEO of News Corp.  it is a public listed company meaning that you can buy shares in the company and own a part for yourself. There is a board of 17 Directors who make decisions but the final word is always down to Rupert Murdoch as the chief executive officer and Primary shareholder.

News Corporation was founded in 1979 By Rupert Murdoch as a Holding company for News limited. News limited was created using the assets that Murdoch inherited after his father died in 1952. The Main asset his father had left him was ownership of the Adelaide afternoon Tabloid. News Limited is still operated today as the Australian brand of News Corporation. In 1973 News Limited bought the San-Antonio express in America and then soon after founded the national star and then in 1976 it purchased the New York post. Then in 1981 News Corporation bought half of the movie studio 20^th Century fox then bought the other half in 1984. In 1985 Rupert Murdoch announced that he was going to buy the Metromedia group of stations but to satisfy legal requirements he had to become a naturalized citizen of the United States of America Because only U.S Citizens can own American Television stations but in 1986 the Metromedia group was closed and Fox broadcasting network was launched and today fox can be received in over 96% of American Households. By 1992 News Corporation was in huge Debt forcing it to sell most of its American magazine interest’s as well as spinning off some long held Australian magazine interests. These Debts were because of the large stakes the company had in sky which had huge losses in its early years of operation but since sky merged with BSB (becoming BskyB) it has dominated the UK broadcast pay-tv market since then. In 1995 Fox network was under FCC Scrutiny when it was alleged that because its base was in Australia it was illegal for Murdoch to own Fox in America But they later ruled in his favour saying that it was in the public’s best interest to leave Murdoch in charge of FOX. In 2003 News Corp Acquired a 34% stake in DirecTV group but was sold off to Liberty Media in exchange for its holdings in news international, then in 2007 News Corp bought The wall Street Times for $5.6 Billion. In 2011 News Corp was the topic of major controversy over accusations of phone hacking  and the news of the world news paper was closed down in july, allegations inovled trying to access former prime minister Gordon browns voice mail, bank accounts, Family medical history and personal legal files Other allegations put out by The Guardian newspaper include the exploitation, with intent to gain access to or use private information, of a list of 4,332 names or partial names, 2,987 mobile phone numbers, 30 audio tapes of varying length and 91 PIN codes. Because of this controversy Rupert Murdoch had to withdraw his bid to buy the remaining 61% of BskyB but he still owns 39.1% of the company.

Bauer media group is a large German publishing company founded in 1875 and is a privately owned company managed by the Bauer it was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG abbreviated to HBV but usually just shortened to H. Bauer.  Originally a small printing house Bauer media has been run by 4 generations of the Bauer Now Bauer owns 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries as well as TV and radio stations. Bauer started off in the UK with Bella magazine launched in 1987 and as H Bauer publishing became Britain’s 3^rd largest publishing company. Bauer expanded further in Britain with the purchase of EMAP consumer media and EMAP radio in 2008 to become the UK’s biggest publishing group. Bella was designed to make an impact on the UK by mixing previously unseen real life editorials with more classic things in women’s magazines such as fashion, beauty, cookery etc. Today’s Bella has evolved to reflect the roll of a modern day woman.  In 1990, H Bauer gained attention with the launch of Take a Break magazine. Take a Break sits in the true life market of the women's weekly sector and quickly became market leader with an ABC audited circulation of over one million sales. Up until 2005 there were only three women's magazines dedicated to delivering true life editorial, one of which was H Bauer's sister title, that's life! (Launched in 1995). Since then the sector has become increasingly competitive with a series of high profile launches that saw the number of titles in the market expand to seven magazines all fighting for market share. Take a Break has retained its lead position in the market, and a number of brand extensions have seen H Bauer's business expand to include puzzle magazines that carry the Take a Break name. 1991 saw H Bauer's first foray into TV listings publishing with the launch of TVQuick magazine. The UK is a nation of TV lovers and traditionally the TV listings magazine market was divided between buyers of Radio Times (launched 1923) and TV Times (launched 1955), depending very much on people's viewing preferences. In 1991 there were two launches into the sector What's on TV was launched by IPC media and H Bauer launched TVQuickwhich sought to provide readers with a listings magazine that combined women's weekly magazine features, TVQuick ceased publication in July 2010. In 1999 H Bauer launched TVChoice at a relatively low price, to provide an alternative to the then market leader (according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations ) What's on TV. TVChoice overtook its main competitor in the February 2008 audited ABCS and has been the number one magazine sold in the UK ever since, reflecting the UK's continued interest in all matters TV related. TVChoice runs an annual TV awards in which readers are encouraged to vote for their favorite TV programmes and personalities. As developments in UK television progressed, H Bauer launched Total TVGuide in September 2003 to cover the increasing number of programmes available on free view. Personally I think it is wrong for one company to own so many different magazines and subsidiaries because it’s like they control so much it’s scary to think that they could control so much of what you see and think in the media.