Reading Text
(9) .......... the year 2000, Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch's global business empire encompassed more than 800 companies and commanded a (10) .......... worth of five billion dollars.
(11) .......... to the seemingly ruthless, monopolistic character of his ambitions, his career has been the (12) .......... of considerable controversy, with perhaps the most acrimonious episode unfolding in 1986, when his News International organisation — (13) .......... then included the British titles the Sun, the News of the World, The Times and the Sunday Times — controversially relocated its London printing operations from Fleet Street to Wapping, replacing traditional letterpress technology (14) .......... modern phototypesetting processes.
The move became notorious for the dismissal of approximately 5,000 striking workers (15) .......... the loss of a single day's production being sustained by management.
(16) .......... to Linda Melvern's account in her book The End of the Street, Murdoch had characterised the manufacturing dimension of the newspaper industry in 1985 as sustaining three times the necessary workforce at five times the appropriate wage level.