On Dec. 2, 2008 the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group published The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch. It is written by media, politics and power writer Michael Wolff of Vanity Fair.

This book has propelled to the forefront the remarkable media tycoon’s life of conquest, this time with actual interviews from the man Murdoch himself, his associates and family members. When an article featuring the book and its subject of interest was printed in Vanity Fair’s October issue, word got out that Murdoch’s side raised objections on some of the content. The prepublication dust up was eventually cleared.

Murdoch left a rather intriguing question unanswered though. Business and media people are still asking why he would allow Wolff considerable open access to his closest network of family and business associates. That remains a mystery in the same way that Murdoch is, even after numerous publications have been written about him.

Keith Rupert Murdoch, presently the Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, began his legacy in native Australia. Inheriting majority of the shares in News Limited, he became the Adelaide newspaper company’s managing editor in 1953. Just three years after he started the weekly television magazine TV Week, the first and most successful of its kind in Australia.

In the following years he would establish himself in Australia by acquiring newspaper companies throughout the country. He would seal his title as media mogul in 1964 by launching Australia’s first national daily newspaper, The Australian.

The consequent decades saw the growth of his empire in exponential proportions. In Britain, he took over the family company The News of the World (1968), new entrant The Sun (1969), and Lord Northcliffe’s The London Times and The Sunday Times (1981).He also ultimately improved the industry landscape by introducing electronic production processes to all his publications in 1986.

Aside from acquiring and creating newspaper companies, when Murdoch turned his entrepreneurial eye to the US, he also invested in television stations (i.e. Fox News), major news websites (MCI Communications) and the cable news market (Fox News Channel). His most recent media industry-staggering win is the bid for the Dow Jones & Company (The Wall Street Journal publisher) for USD 5 billion.

Salon.com article on Rupert Murdoch.

The New York Times also published a profile of Rupert Murdoch.