Word: murdoch
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Astors had received other bids for the Observer-from Fleet Street, four Arab countries and even a Hong Kong patent-medicine heiress. Until last week the leading suitor was Publisher Rupert Murdoch, the Australian whose three-continent newspaper empire includes London's Sun and News of the World and who two weeks ago agreed to buy the New York Post. But the Astors were troubled that many of Murdoch's 87 newspapers are distinguished chiefly by their attention to sex and scandal, and Murdoch would not guarantee editorial independence to Observer editors...
Three years ago Murdoch moved his headquarters to Manhattan, took a Fifth Avenue duplex, and enrolled his three children in local private schools. Clay Felker brought Schiff and Murdoch back together again at his home and, over lunch last September, Murdoch made her an offer. "I won't say how much," he says, "but we didn't get around to it until after coffee...
Schiff may have had some misgivings about Murdoch. He is a leading practitioner of what Fleet Street calls the "tits and bums" school of journalism; his London tabloids, the News of the World and the Sun (combined circ. 9 million), celebrate crime and cheesecake. In the U.S., Murdoch's three-year-old national Star (circ. 1.3 million) is a gaudy but not particularly profitable cousin of the mindless National Enquirer, and his San Antonio Express and News (combined circ. 156,000) is even worse (sample scoops: UNCLE TORTURES TOTS WITH HOT FORK, HANDLESS BODY FOUND, GIRLS STREAK AT GUNPOINT...
...Murdoch convinced Schiff that he would retain the paper's liberal editorial stance, as well as that policy's principal architect, James Wechsler. Post employees last week were generally optimistic about Murdoch. "He can't make the paper any worse," said one reporter. "It has to get better." The staff also hopes that Murdoch will be willing to spend the vast sums necessary to automate the Post's outdated production system (a task that would probably involve buying off the paper's tough unions), expand the paper's weak suburban distribution and fatten...
Schiff, who under the purchase agreement will remain as a consultant for five years, is thinking about writing a column for the paper but otherwise will not discuss her plans. Murdoch is vague about his, but promises no earthquakes. "I don't plan any major changes in the character of the paper," he told TIME. "Newspapers must live for the particular community they serve. I publish the Sun in London for London. I would never do something like that in New York. We plan to widen and strengthen the Post, and to add to the editorial staff...