The Most Famous Media Moguls Globally

Net Worth: $6.88 Billion USD

Rupert Murdoch, born Keith Rupert Murdoch, hails from Melbourne, Australia. He founded The Australian, the country's first national newspaper, in 1964. Around 20 years later, he acquired the New York Post and New York Magazine. Also in the 1980s, Murdoch purchased over half of the stock of 20th Century Fox to become a shareholder. Today, Murdoch serves as the chairman of Fox Corp and News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and The Sun.

Rupert Murdoch is a global media tycoon who started in print media in Australia and expanded into television channels. He gradually entered the media markets of the UK, US, and Asia. Rupert Murdoch has also invested in other areas such as satellite television, film industry, Internet, and media with considerable success. In 2016, Forbes magazine ranked him 96th among billionaires with a total net worth of $10.6 billion USD. In the UK in 1989, Murdoch launched Sky Television, a four-channel satellite service, which merged with British Satellite Broadcasting in 1990 to become British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB). In 2014, the company was renamed Sky after acquiring several other companies in Europe.

Murdoch sought to expand his presence in American television with the launch of a news and political commentary channel called Fox News, which later became highly influential. In 2005, he acquired Intermix Media, the owner of Myspace.com, a social networking site with over 30 million users. Two years later, Murdoch announced that News Corporation was in the process of acquiring Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, for $5 billion USD. Myspace saw a decline in members due to the rise of rival social networking site Facebook, and News Corporation sold it in 2011 for $35 million USD, significantly lower than its initial purchase price.

Net Worth: $7.14 Billion USD

John Malone is a business tycoon, philanthropist, and American landowner. He is the chairman of Liberty Media and Liberty Global. Malone holds bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and economics, and a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University in industrial management. He took over a nearly bankrupt cable company, Tele-Communications, Inc., in 1973 and turned it into the largest cable television company at the time by 1990, as reported by Business Insider. Today, Malone serves as the chairman of Liberty Global, a television and internet company that earned $11.4 billion in 2019.

Malone owns over a million acres of forest land in Maine and New Hampshire. He is the largest private landowner in the US. John Malone is one of the most influential media moguls globally. He also owns 28% of Discover Communications (recently acquired solid cable television partner Scripps Networks for $14.6 billion), holds a 25% stake in Liberty Global (the largest international cable television company with just under 30 million subscribers), and owns 8% of the Atlanta Braves baseball team. Malone also has stakes in Formula One. He currently owns more land in the US than anyone else: precisely 2.2 million acres.

In 2000, John Malone donated $24 million to establish the Daniel L. Malone Engineering Center at Yale, a facility named in honor of his father; in 2011, he contributed $50 million to the school's engineering program; and in the same year, he gifted $30 million to the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering to build a new building - Malone Hall - on the Homewood campus. Hopkins also benefited from his generous $60 million pledge. Most recently, Malone and his wife, Leslie Malone, donated $42.5 million to the University of Colorado to help develop medical therapies for animal and human recovery.

Net Worth: $7.13 Billion USD

George Lucas is a renowned writer, producer, and director. He studied film at the University of Southern California and caught the eye of Francis Ford Coppola, who helped him enter the film business. George Lucas founded Lucasfilm, the company behind the highly successful Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, in 1971. The commercial rights have grossed a total of $12 billion in global box office sales since 1977. Lucas also founded the special effects company Industrial Light & Magic.

American Graffiti, released in 1973, featured emerging talents like Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, and Harrison Ford. Made with a budget of $780,000, the film grossed over $100 million domestically. It garnered five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Director for Lucas, and is still regarded as one of the most successful low-budget films ever made.

Star Wars, released in May 1977, captivated audiences with its inspired special effects, stunning landscapes, compelling characters, and the familiar resonance of a legendary saga and fairy tale. Made with an $11 million budget, the film grossed over $513 million worldwide during its initial release. Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 for $4.1 billion. He and his wife Mellody Hobson have funded the establishment of The Lucas Narrative Art Museum, currently under construction in Los Angeles, which will exhibit numerous artworks and archival materials, including rare items from the Separate Cinema Archive from 1904 to 2019.

Net Worth: $8.6 Billion USD

Jim Kennedy holds the honorary title of chairman and president of the James M. Cox Foundation. He is the grandson of former Ohio governor and presidential candidate James M. Cox, who founded the company in 1898. Kennedy joined Cox in 1972 as a production assistant in the media department and held various positions, including reporter, editor, advertising salesperson, business manager, and vice president/general manager. In 1988, Kennedy was appointed chairman and CEO of Cox Enterprises. During his tenure, Cox Enterprises diversified and grew, increasing annual revenue from $1.88 billion to $20 billion.

Jim Kennedy holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Denver. He was inducted into the prestigious J. Mack Robinson College of Business Hall of Fame at Georgia State University in 2004 and received honorary doctorates in humane letters from the University of Colorado in 2018 and from Kennesaw State University in 2003. He is a regular on Georgia Trend's Most Influential Georgians list and Atlanta Business Chronicle's list of Atlanta's most influential people. The Technology Association of Georgia inducted Kennedy into its Technology Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Georgia Trend Hall of Fame in 2020.

Jim Kennedy served on the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and was instrumental in Atlanta's successful bid to host the 1996 Olympic Games. He is a philanthropist supporting several key areas, including education, healthcare, and sustainability. Kennedy and his wife Sarah were previously recognized as Philanthropists of the Year by the Greater Atlanta Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals for their significant contributions to the community. He established the Jim Kennedy Scholarship Fund, a $10 million endowment to support children of Cox employees. Each year, the program awards 15 scholarships worth $10,000, renewable for all four years of the recipient's education.

Net Worth: $8.6 Billion USD

Blair Parry-Okeden (born in 1950) is an Australian-American billionaire and philanthropist. According to Forbes Asia, she was the wealthiest person in Australia by net worth in 2016. Blair Parry-Okeden's wealth comes from her grandfather's company. She is a cousin of Taylor, Rayner, and Chambers. Parry-Okeden inherited a 25% stake in Cox Enterprises when her mother passed away in 2007. Their grandfather, James Cox, founded the company in 1898.

Parry-Okeden's grandfather, James M. Cox, established the privately held media company Cox Enterprises. Her brother, James C. Kennedy, is the chairman, and her aunt, Anne Cox Chambers, is the largest shareholder and sits on the board of directors. Parry-Okeden first gained prominence in Australia in March 2009 when Forbes Asia estimated her net worth at AUD $7.0 billion. In January 2016, her net worth was estimated by Forbes at $9.8 billion, and in 2019, her wealth was estimated at $9.3 billion USD; however, she is currently no longer listed among the wealthiest Australians due to her U.S. citizenship.

Net Worth: $10 Billion USD

David Geffen was born in New York City in 1943, he is a film and record producer. Along with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, he co-founded DreamWorks. Geffen has founded several other companies, such as Geffen Records, DGC, and Geffen Film Company. He has also helped produce successful works like Dreamgirls, Little Shop of Horrors, and The Cats, bringing in staggering profits.

David Geffen amassed his wealth through media ventures. In 1980, he founded Geffen Records with financial backing from Warner and started nurturing new talents and acts. In March 1990, at the end of a six-year contract, Geffen sold his recording business to the Universal Music Group for $550 million. Four years later, he co-founded the film studio DreamWorks SKG with Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg.

In 1999, the company announced a partnership with Imagine Entertainment to create Pop.com, an internet entertainment company providing short films, online videos, live events, games, performance art, and continuous strings. Geffen owns a $590 million superyacht, Rising Sun, where he hosts notable figures like Jeff Bezos, Tom Hanks, and the Obamas. David Geffen is a media tycoon and a film executive, he has had an influence in shaping popular culture—a position that has also made him subject to significant criticism.

Net Worth: $9.4 Billion USD

Tim Sweeney was born in 1970 and raised in Potomac, Maryland, with two older brothers. His father was a cartographer for the U.S. government, and his mother cared for Sweeney and his siblings. At a young age, Sweeney visited his eldest brother in San Diego, California, at a startup where he worked, which had an IBM computer. His brother taught him how to program on it. By the age of 11, Sweeney spent hours on the Apple II Plus computer his brother gave him, using it to program electronic games.

Tim Sweeney accumulated his wealth in the electronic gaming industry. In 1991, Sweeney co-founded Epic Games, the developer behind games like Gears of War and Fortnite. The company earned $1.8 billion in 2019. Sweeney is the CEO of the company behind 'Fortnite'—the wildly popular battle royale game that has earned billions since its launch in 2017. Epic Games is also responsible for the Unreal Engine, software used to create some of the world's biggest games. According to Bloomberg, Sweeney has a net worth of nearly $10 billion, millions of which he has donated to conservation efforts.

The 'Gears of War' franchise has sold over 22 million copies and grossed over $1 billion. (Microsoft acquired the 'Gears of War' franchise in 2014 for an undisclosed amount.). Epic Games also produced games like 'Shadow Complex' and the 'Infinity Blade' series, both action role-playing games set in various time periods. In 2013, the Chinese tech company Tencent invested $330 million in Epic Games to acquire a 40% stake. Sweeney has donated millions to preserve land in North Carolina. In 2017, he purchased 193 acres of land in Alamance County for $1.97 million to preserve it.

Net Worth: $16.3 Billion USD

Donald Edward Newhouse born in 1929 is an American billionaire heir and business magnate. In 1979, Donald Newhouse inherited his wealth from his father, Sam Newhouse, who founded Advance Publications in 1922. Advance Publications acquired Random House (1980) and several other book publishers, becoming one of the largest magazine publishers in America with titles like The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Gentleman's Quarterly, and more. The bulk of their wealth came from selling cable operator Bright House Networks for $10.4 billion to Charter Communications in May 2016.

Advance Publications also holds stakes in Discovery Communications and social news website Reddit. Conde Nast's revenue was estimated at around $1.7 billion in 2020, using the company's print revenue according to a Privco report in 2016 and the results of comparable companies Meredith and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Advance Publications' revenue was estimated at around $1.6 billion in 2020, based on 2011 revenue reported by Advertising Age—the last year it conducted a survey of the top 100 media companies.

Newhouse endured the decline in print publishing business since 2008. The company shuttered a dozen magazines, including long-standing titles like Gourmet and House & Garden, while also trimming several newspapers, including reducing the frequency of a magazine. According to Forbes, at age 86, Donald Newhouse has a net worth of $10.1 billion USD. This made him the 116th richest billionaire in the world in 2016. In the United States, he ranks 48th richest. In January 2020, Newhouse donated $75 million to the SI Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Net Worth: $10.2 Billion USD

Charles Ergen is a legend in the satellite business. He founded EchoStar Corporation and became a major figure in the satellite television industry. Ergen initially called his company EcoSphere, established in 1980, selling satellite TV channels in rural Colorado. By 2004, EchoStar had 15,000 employees and nine satellites orbiting the earth, delivering hundreds of TV, audio, and data channels to nine million direct-to-home subscribers. EchoStar, through the DISH Network, is the second-largest satellite broadcasting provider in the US, behind only DirecTV.

Charles Ergen is the largest shareholder of EcoStar, owning about 51% of the company's shares and over 85% of the voting rights. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation holds about 12% of the company's stock, although Murdoch and Ergen are fierce competitors and business adversaries. Chairman and CEO Ergen has developed the company's DTH products and services, including direct broadcast satellite TV dishes, integrated receivers, programming, installation, and third-party consumer financing for the company's products and services.

In 1988, Charles Ergen received the Satellite Television Family Association Star Award, and in June 1991 INC. Magazine honored him as Entrepreneur of the Year for the Rocky Mountain region. In 2000, Aviation Week named him Businessman of the Year in the space industry, and in 2001, he was Frost & Sullivan's CEO of the Year for the satellite industry. Ergen is a co-founder of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, which helped garner support to pass the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act in 1999, allowing satellite broadcasting of local television channels.

Net Worth: $54.9 Billion USD

Michael Bloomberg co-founded the media company Bloomberg LP in 1981. Twenty years later, the company rebranded. Bloomberg LP has become a global leader in financial data services. Other stakes of the company include the Bloomberg Business News electronic service, the WBBR news radio station in New York City, and Bloomberg Television. Today, he owns 88% of the business. Bloomberg served as Mayor of New York City for three terms starting in 2002. He ran for president in 2020 but dropped out in March.

During his tenure at the helm of his company, Bloomberg served on the boards of leading cultural organizations, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Central Park Conservancy, and the Jewish Museum, and he donated $100 million to Johns Hopkins University. Bloomberg is a recipient of numerous honors, including the 2009 Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service. In 2014, he was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE).

Bloomberg News is a New York City-based news service known for providing business and economic news to investors and increasing competition among business news outlets. Bloomberg News is operated by Bloomberg LP, a private financial data and media company. Bloomberg News has also been a driving force behind changes in the journalism industry.