Keith Arthur Murdoch was a journalist who became managing editor and chairman of the Herald and Weekly Times. He started his career with the Age, working as a correspondent for the Malvern district and in 1908 traveled to London to undertake speech therapy for his stammer and to also study part-time at the London School of Economics.
Murdoch returned to Australia in 1909 and continued working at the Age until 1912, when he secured the position of Melbourne correspondent for the Sydney Sun. In 1915 he was appointed managing editor of the London cable service run by the Sun and the Melbourne Herald. While travelling to England via the Middle east he managed to secure the permission of Sir Ian Hamilton, commander of the Dardanelles campaign in Turkey, to visit Australian troops in Gallipoli. He wrote his impressions for the newspapers and subsequently helped secure his reputation as one of Australia's finest war correspondents.
After arriving in England Murdoch expanded the cable service and made significant contributions to journalism there. He returned to Australia in 1921 after being offered the post of chief editor at the Melbourne Herald. When the Sydney Sun attempted to break into the Melbourne market with the Sun News-Pictorial, Murdoch fought a campaign against the paper and three years later acquired it. Thereafter he began buying out other newspapers, beginning with Adelaide's Advertiser, and soon after Brisbane's Daily Mail (which merged with the Brisbane Courier to become the Courier Mail). Through the Herald he also became involved in the acquisition of a network of radio stations and in 1935 oversaw the merging of rival cable services to form Australian Associated Press Ltd.
In 1942 Murdoch became chairman of the Herald group, and two years later established the Herald Chair of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne. The following year he became chairman of the trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria.
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