citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . june 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message it has been suggested that this article be merged with news corporation . discuss proposed since may 2014 . news corp australia type subsidiary industry mass media predecessor news limited founded adelaide south australia 1923 ; 93 years ago 1923 founder sir keith murdoch headquarters surry hills sydney australia area served australia key people rupert murdoch chairman lachlan murdoch director peter tonagh ceo michael miller executive chairman products newspapers magazines internet services pay television national rugby league market research dvd and film distribution film and television production owner news corp subsidiaries foxtel 50 % with telstra brisbane broncos 69 % website www.newscorpaustralia.com news corp australia formerly news limited is one of australia s largest media companies employing more than 8 000 staff nationwide and approximately 3 000 journalists . the publicly listed company s interests span newspaper and magazine publishing internet subscription television market research dvd and film distribution and film and television production trading assets . 1 news corp australia owns approximately 142 daily sunday weekly bi weekly and tri weekly newspapers of which three are free commuter titles and 102 are suburban publications including 16 in which news corp australia has a 50 % interest . news corp australia publishes a nationally distributed newspaper in australia a metropolitan newspaper in each of the australian cities of sydney melbourne brisbane adelaide perth sundays only hobart and darwin and groups of suburban newspapers in the suburbs of sydney melbourne adelaide brisbane and perth . the company publishes a further thirty magazine titles across australia . 2 according to the finkelstein review of media and media regulation in 2011 news corp australia then news limited accounted for 23 % of the newspaper titles in australia . 3 with interests in digital media the company s sites include news.com.au business spectator and eureka report kidspot.com.au taste.com.au and homelife.com.au . it has 50 % stakes in careerone.com.au and carsguide.com.au a share in rea group that operates www.realestate.com.au as well as websites for most newspaper and magazine titles . the company s other australian assets include all of fox sports australia 50 % ownership of subscription television provider foxtel and shares in the brisbane broncos nrl team . until the formation of news corporation in 1979 news limited was the principal holding company for the business interests of rupert murdoch and his family . since then news limited had been wholly owned by news corporation . in 2004 news corporation announced its intention to reincorporate to the united states . on 3 november news corp limited ceased trading on the australian stock exchange ; and on 8 november news corporation began trading on the new york stock exchange . 4 on 28 june 2013 news corporation was split into two separate companies . murdoch s newspaper interests became news corp which was the new parent company of news limited . 5 news limited was renamed news corp australia following the listing of the new news corp on 1 july 2013 . 6 contents 1 history 1.1 editorial conduct issues 1.2 corporate changes 2 influence in australia 3 acquisitions 3.1 britain 3.2 united states 3.3 australia 4 holdings 4.1 newspapers 4.1.1 metropolitan 4.1.2 community 4.1.3 regional 4.2 magazines 4.3 websites 4.4 nrl properties 4.5 television 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit news limited was established in 1923 by james edward davidson when he purchased the broken hill barrier miner and the port pirie recorder . 7 he went on to purchase adelaide s weekly mail 8 and to found the news a daily newspaper in adelaide south australia . sir keith murdoch acquired a minority interest in the company in 1949 . 9 following the death of his father sir keith in 1952 rupert murdoch inherited the news which has been described by bruce page 10 as the foundation stone of news limited and news corporation . over the next few years murdoch gradually established himself as one of the most dynamic media proprietors in australia quickly expanding his holdings by acquiring a string of daily and suburban newspapers in most capital cities including the sydney afternoon paper the daily mirror as well as a small sydney based recording company festival records . his acquisition of the mirror proved crucial to his success allowing him to challenge the dominance of his two main rivals in the sydney market the fairfax newspapers group which published the hugely profitable the sydney morning herald and the consolidated press group owned by sir frank packer which published the city s leading tabloid paper the daily telegraph . in 1964 news limited made its next important advance when it established the australian australia s first national daily newspaper based initially in canberra and later in sydney . the australian a broadsheet gave news limited a new respectability as a quality newspaper publisher and also greater political influence since the australian has always had an elite readership if not always a large circulation . citation needed also in 1964 news limited made rupert murdoch s first overseas newspaper investment a 29.57 percent stake in the wellington publishing company subsequently part of independent newspapers limited inl new zealand s largest publishing group . the news limited holding in inl fluctuated over the years and was just over 49 percent in 1997 . the inl business was bought by news limited s main rival in 2003 fairfax media . in 1972 news limited acquired the daily telegraph from sir frank packer making murdoch one of the big three newspaper proprietors in australia along with fairfax media in sydney and his father s old herald and weekly times ltd in melbourne . in the 1972 elections murdoch swung his newspapers support behind gough whitlam and the left wing australian labor party but by 1975 he had turned against labor and since then has almost always supported the rightist liberal party . citation needed over the next ten years as his press empire grew murdoch established a hugely lucrative financial base and these profits were routinely used to subsidise further acquisitions . in his early years of newspaper ownership murdoch was an aggressive micromanaging entrepreneur . citation needed his standard tactic was to buy loss making australian newspapers and turn them around by introducing radical management and editorial changes and fighting no holds barred circulation wars with his competitors . by the 1970s this power base was so strong that murdoch was able to acquire leading newspapers and magazines in both london and new york as well as many other media holdings . to gain subscriptions for its new pay television business news ltd recruited rugby league football administrators clubs and players to form a new competition sparking the mid 1990s super league war . on 12 july 2006 news limited announced the creation of a new division news digital media to manage the operations of the news site news.com.au ; the online marketplace sites carsguide.com.au truelocal.com.au and careerone.com.au as well as the partly owned realestate.com.au foxsports.com.au and related activities involving foxtel and the company s newspapers and the australian versions of fox interactive media sites myspace and ign . chairman and chief executive of news limited john hartigan announced the appointment of richard freudenstein as chief executive of the division . 11 editorial conduct issues edit in the wake of the news international phone hacking scandal in the united kingdom in july 2011 news limited announced a review of all payments in the previous three years . 12 on 22 july it was reported that two retired victorian supreme court judges frank vincent ao qc and bernard teague ao were appointed to act as independent assessors of the conduct of the review and also assess the outcome . 13 the editorial and financial review concluded in early november and found no evidence of phone hacking or payments to public officials 14 15 with vincent and teague declaring that the review process did not bring ... to light any systemic issues with respect to the making of payments to third parties and any substantial amounts paid to individuals in respect of illegitimate activities . 16 despite this the australian division of news corp has not entirely escaped scandal with allegations in 2012 that news corp subsidiary news datacom systems nds had used hackers to undermine pay tv rivals around the world including australia . some of the victims of the alleged hacking such as austar were later taken over by news corp and others such as ondigital later went bust . nds had originally been set up to provide security to news corp s pay tv interests but emails obtained by fairfax media revealed they had also pursued a wider agenda by distributing the keys to rival set top box operators and seeking to obtain phone records of suspected rivals . 17 the emails were from the hard drive of nds european chief ray adams . it was also revealed that australian federal police were working with uk police to investigate hacking by news corp. 18 corporate changes edit on 28 june 2013 news corporation split into two publicly traded companies focused on publishing and broadcasting media respectively . at this time news limited was renamed news corp australia and became part of the publishing company news corp with wall street journal editor robert thomson replacing rupert murdoch as ceo . murdoch remains a chairman and shareholder for both companies . 19 on 9 august 2013 it was announced that julian clarke would replace kim williams as the ceo of news corp australia . williams had replaced john hartigan who served as ceo between 2000 and 2011 who had in turn succeeded lachlan murdoch . 20 on 9 june 2015 it was announced that peter tonagh would replace julian clarke as the ceo of news corp australia with michael millar to be appointed to the role of executive chairman . 21 peter tonagh and michael millar s first day in their new roles was 16 november 2015 22 influence in australia edit murdoch s desire for dominant cross media ownership manifested in early 1961 when he bought an ailing australian record label festival records and within a few years it had become the leading local recording company . he also bought a television station in wollongong new south wales hoping to use it to break into the sydney television market but found himself frustrated by australia s cross media ownership laws which prevented him from owning both a major newspaper and television station in the same city . since then he has consistently lobbied both personally and through his papers to have these laws changed in his favour . this occurred in 2006 when the liberal national coalition government having gained control of both houses of the australian parliament introduced reforms to cross media ownership and foreign media ownership laws . the laws came into effect in early 2007 . citation needed news corp australia has nearly three quarters of daily metropolitan newspaper circulation and so maintains great influence in australia . internal news corp australia documents reveal a brazen offer during the 2001 federal election campaign to promote the policies of a major party in its best selling newspapers nationwide for almost a 500 000 . 23 other documents include a marginal seats guide written by a senior business manager for internal use . it evidences a corporate strategy to target marginal seats at the 2004 election . 24 some of the documents appeared on media watch . 25 murdoch wanted a way to influence politics in his native land . he saw a way to do that through the news limited publication the australian . 26 the national daily was used to support murdoch s political interests over time such as john mcewen with