WHERE THEY CAME FROM
News Corp. started in Adelaide, Australia, in 1952, when the 21-year-old Rupert Murdoch inherited the two newspapers his father had owned. In the 1960s, Murdoch expanded his holdings in his home country, then he started in on England. In 1973, his invasion of America began with his purchase of the San Antonio Express-News. He expanded his business further by acquiring tabloids, broadcast TV outlets, and cable networks, and officially incorporated as News Corp. in 1979.

WHAT THEY DO
If you listed News Corp.'s properties in alphabetical order, you'd start with The Australian, a nationwide newspaper, and end with Zondervan, a Christian book publisher. In between are HarperCollins and an assortment of newspapers, magazines, radio stations, sports teams, film studios, movie and TV production companies, TV networks (including Fox, which broadcasts the hit show American Idol), satellite TV systems, internet sites (most notably MySpace, which it bought in 2005 for $580 million), outdoor advertising groups, and a sports restaurant franchise.

WHAT THEY GOT RIGHT
While other media companies struggle, especially ones heavily invested in print media, Murdoch has been able to make his empire extremely profitable: News Corp. is worth $59 billion and has annual revenues of $27 billion. Once his deal to buy back about 16 percent of News Corp.'s shares from John Malone goes through, Murdoch will have regained a huge chunk of his voting stock and will be able to control his company even more tightly. In exchange, he's giving up his stake in DirecTV, whose future may be precarious anyway.

WHAT THEY GOT WRONG
News Corp. mainly faces two problems: an ongoing propensity for public relations scandals and Murdoch family turmoil. In fall 2006, Judith Regan's ill-conceived plan to publish If I Did It, a book by O.J. Simpson, brought the company particularly bad headlines and cost it bundles of cash. Also, Fox News has controversial host Bill O'Reilly, while Fox's broadcast network tends to specialize in outrageous show concepts. Then there's the New York Post, which is always good for a scandal or two in any particular year. Murdoch's reputation for editorial tampering may scuttle his attempt to buy Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

Murdoch's main problem, however, is that he seems undecided about what he wants to happen to the company after he relinquishes control. Though Murdoch, who turned 76 in March 2007, runs one of the world’s biggest media conglomerates, he runs it as a family business, and it seems as though he would like to pass his stake along to his children. Too bad the dynamics in the Murdoch family make Malcolm in the Middle look like The Waltons.

WHAT'S NEXT
With the DirecTV deal increasing Murdoch's voting stake, it's even more urgent that he clarify his retirement plans. He needs to name a successor or stay in power until one of his children is ready to take over for him. In the meantime, he must figure out what to do with MySpace and his other internet properties in order to keep the debt incurred in acquiring them from burdening his more successful enterprises. -Beth Pinsker