Kerry Stokes, the chair of Seven, is the highest placing media personality on the 2019 Financial Review Rich List, moving to 11th placed, up from 13th, with a wealth of $5.69 billion, up from $4.93 billion.
However, media only accounted for less than 20% of his wealth. As recently as 2000 the media accounted for more than half.
Lachlan Murdoch returned to the rich list after a seven years, thanks to the sale of the 21st Century Fox to The Walt Disney Company.
He is 18th on the Financial Review Rich List with a wealth of $3.62 billion, thanks to his share of the Murdoch family windfall from the sale of 21st Century Fox to The Walt Disney Company.
The sale, which closed in March, is set to make his father Rupert an estimated $US4 billion, and Rupert’s six children roughly $US2 billion each.
Lachlan first appeared on the Rich List in 2011 but disappeared the following year of the steep fall in the share price of Network Ten.
He could have made the list in his own right thanks to his investment in Nova Entertainment. The parent company of Smooth FM, Nova made a $29 million profit and earned Lachlan a $32 million dividend in 2017 alone.
Prudence MacLeod, Rupert Murdoch’s eldest daughter, enters the list for the first time at 22 with $3.1 billion, also thanks to her father’s decision to sell 21st Century Fox to The Walt Disney Corporation.
Bruce Gordon, the owner of WIN Corporation, fell to 134th from 112th with $728 million. He has a stake in Nine, Prime Media Group and TPG Telecom.
John Singleton, the co-owner of Macquarie Media, jumped to 145th place with $670 million from 161 in 2018. He has a 32% stake in radio network Macquarie Media, and co-ownership in Manboom, which last year made $60 million from selling 17 billboards outside Sydney Airport.
Joy Chambers-Grundy, the wife of the late television pioneer Reg Grundy, comes in at 104 with a wealth of $871 million.
Gretal Packer, the older sister of James, was sitting at 80 this year, down from 61 in 2018, with a wealth of $1.16 billion.
Judith Neilsen was 65th, down from 36th in 2018, with a wealth of $1.35 billion. In November, Neilsen announced $100 million funding of The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas which aims to encourage independent quality journalism by providing education and grants.
Neilson, the ex-wife of Platinum Asset Management founder Kerr Neilson, will have no say in the institute's day-to-day running and will rely on experienced journalists and other experts to guide its work. It will be based in Chippendale.
The cut-off for the 200 richest list is $427 million, up from $387 million in 2018.
Paper and packaging magnate Anthony Pratt is Australia’s richest man with wealth of $15 billion.
Second is mining magnate Gina Rinehart with $13.81 billion.
Next is proeprty developer Harry Triguboff with$13.54 billion, then Hui Wing Mau with $10.39 billion from property, and then Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar with $9.75 billion, and fellow Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes with a $9.63 billion fortune.
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