Rupert Murdoch is probably the most successful media proprietor and operator in history. There is no possible argument about his boldness, vision and skill of execution in conquering the British tabloid market, leading vertical media integration by uniting film studios and television stations, cracking the US television triopoly, being one of the great pioneers of satellite television and founding a conservative-populist American news network. (It was to reduce News Corp’s dependence on Roger Ailes’ Tea Party Fox News Network that he was so eager to spend £12bn buying all the shares in BSkyB and laying hands on all its income.) It must also be admitted that the Wall St Journal is the only quality product Mr Murdoch has ever bought and actually improved.
鲁珀特•默多克(Rupert Murdoch)也许是史上最成功的媒体所有者和经营者。没有人能够怀疑默多克的果敢、远见和执行手腕：他征服了英国小报市场，通过整合制片厂和电视台实现媒体的垂直整合，打破了三大台垄断美国电视业的局面，是卫星电视领域伟大的先驱者之一，还创立了一个偏向保守-民粹主义观点的美国新闻台——默多克之所以急于用120亿美元全资收购英国天空广播(BSkyB)，就是为了减少新闻集团(News Corp)对福克斯新闻频道(Fox News)的依赖，后者由罗杰•艾尔斯(Roger Ailes)领导，支持茶党(Tea Party)。同时，必须承认的是，《华尔街日报》(Wall St Journal)是默多克迄今收购并且实际上改进的唯一高质素媒体。
He was sometimes very fortunate, especially when Margaret Thatcher exempted his satellite telecasting from regulation (though she was just repaying the favours of the Sun); that his bid for MGM was unsuccessful just before his near-mortal financial crisis in 1990; and that British Satellite Broadcasting was so ineptly managed by Granada and others that it collapsed into his arms 20 years ago. But luck is a small part of the explanation for his success.
默多克有时候运气奇佳，特别是在以下事件中：玛格丽特•撒切尔(Margaret Thatcher)放开了对默多克卫星电视直播的监管（尽管她这样做只是为了回报《太阳报》对自己的支持）；1990年，默多克遭遇严重的财务危机，险些破产，幸好在这之前不久他对米高梅(MGM)的收购并没有成功；20年前，英国卫星广播公司(British Satellite Broadcasting)在Granada和其他所有者手里严重经营不善，使得默多克不费吹灰之力就收购了这家公司。然而，幸运只是默多克取得成功的一小部分因素。