Rupert Murdoch On the Importance Of Journalism

RUPERT Murdoch. Publishing genius. Here he tells Esquire readers about how journalism captivated him:

I finished college at twenty-two. I was going to do six months training on Fleet Street, which was the mecca of competitive journalism. I sat in on the Daily Express, and I enjoyed it so much, I thought, I gotta have a job here, just to learn. And I did that for four or five months. It was one of the happiest experiences of my life. I was living in a friend’s sitting room in London — which in those days was filthy from the pollution — and watching the editor and learning to be a journalist.

There was paper rationing in Britain in those days, and they couldn’t produce more than an eight-page broadsheet. And they treated every day like it was life-or-death competition. They would put up a one-page critique of the paper every day. “We had 156 stories today, and the Daily Mail had 164. Never let that happen again.” Everything was boiled down to two paragraphs or so. Brevity was important. Facts had to be right. And it was exciting. As a journalist, you felt as if you were right at the center of events.

Why does Anorak exist? To try to replicate some of that buzz in choosing stories that are not led by PR, spin and advertisers…

Anorak

Posted: 13th, September 2008 | In: Media Bitch, Money, Twitterings Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink