Word: murdoch
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...already widespread in countries like Belgium and Holland). German cable viewers can choose from such new channels as the Luxembourg-based RTL-Plus and SAT 1, run by a consortium of German publishers. Meanwhile, the skies over Europe are becoming crowded with new satellite services, among them Rupert Murdoch's Sky Channel, which reaches an estimated 5.5 million homes with reruns of The Lucy Show and The Untouchables as well as entertainment shows produced in Britain and on the Continent...
...prospect of increased profits from his London papers comes at a critical time for Murdoch. Last year he doubled the size of his empire by buying seven Metromedia television stations ($2 billion), 20th Century-Fox ($575 million) and a stable of business magazines from Ziff-Davis ($350 million). To finance his purchases, Murdoch has borrowed about $480 million from banks and issued shares in Fox Television Stations, the first time stock in a Murdoch-controlled enterprise has been offered to the U.S. public. Despite Murdoch's heavy financial obligations, analysts who have followed his fortunes over the years trust...
...least, Murdoch has not made a misstep in quitting Fleet Street. Thatcher has praised him in the House of Commons, while opinion polls show little support for Dean and her followers. Unlike the miners, who attracted considerable sympathy during their strike, the printers are perceived by the public as overpaid and underworked. "Fleet Street is one of the great bastions of Luddism," observed a senior government official. "The print unions, which have rejected every attempt to adapt to the future, are now washed up on a very lonely shore...
...implications stretch beyond Wapping. As Murdoch proved by hiring electricians to replace the printers, the historic solidarity of the British union movement is cracking. Following Fleet Street's example, other recalcitrant unions, notably those representing teachers and autoworkers, may be forced to modify their demands. Some government officials even grandly predict international consequences. Said one: "If Fleet Street can move decisively with a minimum of fuss, British industry will clearly present a different image across the world...
...moment, however, it is Murdoch's journalists who are the most impressed by Wapping. Crouched over typewriters just a month ago, they now sit in front of glowing screens, moving paragraphs around electronically, deleting clumsy sentences, calling up notes. The exclamations of wonderment among American journalists when computer terminals were introduced to U.S. newspapers a decade ago are now being heard for the first time at a London paper, and there can be no turning back. "The computers are wonderful," says George Brock, editor of the Times' op-ed page. "You wonder how you ever operated without them...