Sun princess a shining star in Murdoch's orbit
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday March 23, 2010
Elisabeth Murdoch tells Jane Martinson about her relentless drive to be the best. Elisabeth Murdoch sits down, eyes the voice recorder, and says "I have to be careful." The head of Shine, Britain's largest independent television producer, and scion of Rupert, then proceeds to talk openly about her company, ambitions, politics and much else besides.It is a performance that infuriates her PR minders, one of whom she happens to be married to, while disarming most journalists she meets. "Gosh, I'm going to be in trouble," she says as we get up to leave. The second-eldest child of Rupert Murdoch rarely gives interviews, largely because she is understandably tired of questions about his succession but also perhaps because she appears to share with him an inability to refuse to answer most journalists' questions.Whether it is how she will vote in the general election (Conservative probably), what she thinks of New Labour's handling of the economy (not good) or what she did when her husband, Matthew Freud, criticised a hugely successful part of the Murdoch-owned News Corporation, she hardly ever refuses to comment. The interview is worth the wait.In protecting her, Freud, and those who surround her, are sensitive to the fact that she makes headlines simply for being who she is rather than what she has done. And she has genuinely done a lot - a 41-year-old who founded a business that now dominates Britain's independent production sector after less than 10 years. All that as well as being a mother of four and a stepmother of two.Yes, Shine, the company she set up after a controversial departure from Sky, was helped by an output deal with that branch of the family firm. But it has grown since then through a series of ambitious acquisitions and onscreen success to become Britain's largest consolidated indie with revenues up 23 per cent to 265 million ($434 million) last year, according to a survey by the magazine Broadcast. In the past 12 months Shine has expanded its operations from two to 10 countries after buying a Nordic business as well as moving into Australia, France, Germany and elsewhere. More than 60 per cent of the company's revenues come from overseas after a spate of acquisitions from Ugly Betty's producer, Reveille, in the US to Metronome in Sweden.MasterChef has become one of the biggest exports of a country hardly known for its culinary talents. The souped-up X Factor-style Australian version recently received the largest audience share of any non-sports show in the country's history, and it has not one but three offshoots - Professional, Celebrity and Junior. Yes, rivals quibble about the return on investment for a company that has grown fast through acquisitions, but it is hard not to see Shine as a success story.Fresh from doing "50,000 squats" in preparation for a gruelling race at Cheltenham, Murdoch is fizzing with energy when we meet. Leaving behind an office filled with family snaps, the two of us sit at a tiny table in a nearby Italian deli and she cheerfully ignores shoppers reaching over our heads for packets of pasta to talk about her future plans. She was "chuffed" about topping Broadcast's survey but adds: "We are the antithesis as a company of believing in size for size's sake."She suggests that future growth won't be "more of the same", with targets that include fast-growing areas such as Latin America or Thailand as well as social media such as games. Her children love one called Farmville, and she instantly wonders: "Why are we not creating [this]?"She has recently recruited the former Bebo chief Joanna Shields to run a business designed to marry Shine TV and web content. In a company that "lives and dies by intellectual property" another hit show to follow the international success of MasterChef would be good. There were high hopes for The Biggest Loser on ITV but it has so far failed to, well, shine in Britain. She is excited about a gameshow created by a Swedish offshoot for NBC in the US called A Minute to Win It, but it is early days.Murdoch still owns more than 60 per cent of the business (of the rest Sky has 13 per cent and Sony 20 per cent) and her entrepreneurial streak and the ownership structure of the group are topics she returns to again and again."I wanted my own business. I felt I could achieve a great deal even if it was bloody scary at the time," she says of leaving Sky. Of Shine, she says: "It helps to have a founding shareholder who is deeply motivated and deeply invested, not just financially but personally, in the business ... If you are going to build a true legacy company you have to have that long-term view ... I'm not leaving in 12 months' time."The subject of her future career has been a favourite media parlour game almost from the minute she reached adulthood. Her success as an entrepreneur and growing recognition as an instinctive, creative businesswoman has revived speculation that she could take on a bigger role within News Corp, a company controlled by her father, 79, and run outside the US by her youngest brother, James.Dismissing talk of succession as "inappropriate", she still manages to say: "We'll all work very closely together but whether that means in executive roles, I don't know. That's the best I can answer without answering that."She is happier underlining her commitment to her own company. "I'm at the beginning of a journey with Shine. How that plays out I don't know but I'm never going to leave it behind ... I don't think there is necessarily a next from Shine ... It is my vehicle, it's representative of me. I never want to not be part of it."It almost goes without saying, but she is still "capable of large-scale ambition" for it and further deals are likely. So keen was she to maintain its independent status - which allows it to pitch to all broadcasters - that when she was finally asked to sit on the board of News Corp 18 months ago she insisted on becoming an observer instead, keeping a foot in each camp."It keeps me abreast of what's going on," she says. "We are a close family and supportive [of each other] and we can talk in full knowledge afterwards. You know, it just keeps you plugged in to what's going on."Being "plugged in" also meant that when Freud spoke out against Fox News within the pages of the liberal archenemy of the US rightwing media, The New York Times, his wife emailed Roger Ailes, the combative head of the business. "I was too scared to phone him," she says, rolling her eyes.Hilariously, given Fox's support for Sarah Palin and antipathy towards Barack Obama, she emailed that her husband had "gone rogue"."[Fox] is a huge achievement as a business," she wrote. "I don't agree with everything in the political commentary but I'm a very big supporter of the achievements you've had."She pleaded for a lack of "awkwardness" between them. As an Obama supporter - she hosted a glitzy fundraiser - does she not agree with Freud, even if the story was what she calls a "regrettable moment"? Her answer is telling."I'm very pragmatic and I found him [Obama] very inspiring in his campaign. It was a significant moment in time and I felt proud to support that campaign. But I've never belonged to a political party ... I've always been an outsider and I don't think you can swallow party platforms whole. In a party political system that tends to happen, but I'm not that way."Her contacts with David Cameron, the leader of the British opposition Conservative party and those close to him raises the obvious question. Will she vote Conservative? "Yes, I probably would."She admits she has a "huge amount of personal respect for Gordon Brown" and "adores" Sarah, who was influential in Murdoch starting a mentoring campaign for senior women in the media, but "that doesn't mean that I don't think this country needs a change".She would not want to endorse Cameron, she adds. She simply believes Labour has not done enough for business as opposed to the public sector and that it has also reneged on its promises in the arts - she is a trustee of the Tate art galleries and also on the UK Film Council.She even mentions that the company has considered a shift offshore - something she would find a "tragedy" given her attachment to Britain - but Shine has no plans to change its tax status in the UK.Before people rush to see her views as typically Murdochian, it is fair to remember that she may be the only family member to speak in favour of the BBC. She likes its director-general, Mark Thompson, and is a "fan" of the corporation, although she cannot resist pointing out that it happens to be a "big customer".Given her continuing links with Sky, does she never wonder what could have happened if she had stayed? "No. Weirdly. I don't really think that way. I'm really forward-looking. If I make a decision it's because I knew it wasn't going to work or I was going to be unhappy. I'm not lacking in self-awareness, but once I'm going somewhere, I'm going."This attitude helped last Thursday with a race at Cheltenham where she raised almost 60,000 for Cancer Research UK. She was encouraged to enter by Charlie Brooks, the former racehorse trainer married to Rebekah Brooks, News International's chief executive.Before the race, which she managed to complete though not win, she is "terrified". Why do it? "I think it's that I like pushing myself. I hope that doesn't sound strangely psychotic but there is a sense that I can do better. It's self-competitive. Not with anybody else."At about 175 centimetres she is tall for a jockey and lost 7.3 kilograms in six weeks to get to race weight. "Even if I'm not the best, I'm probably the hungriest," she laughs.
© 2010 Sydney Morning Herald