American businessman Ted Turner: biography, personal life, photo, success story

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

There are many celebrities whose activities have left an imprint on people's minds. One of these is Ted Turner, a well-known media mogul, founder of CNN. He always went his own way, avoiding patterns and stereotypes, thanks to which he became known as a businessman, philanthropist and extraordinary person.

Eccentric Billionaire

American businessman Ted Turner has never been accommodating. From a young age, he showed the independence of his character, for which he was beaten by his father more than once. This trait has left its mark on the way the news company CNN reports. Repeatedly, this channel uncompromisingly conveyed information, bypassing government prohibitions, which earned the love of ordinary people.

Ted never considered the opinions of others. In his news, he ridiculed politicians, religious organizations, businessmen. If necessary, he could turn the White House administration inside out.

Due to his eccentric nature, he was not afraid to look funny. One day at a meeting of the Turner Broadcasting System, he appeared in a militaryuniforms from the time of the civil war of the North and South of the United States and was present at it in this form.

Youth of Ted Turner

On November 19, 1938, a child named Ted was born into the family of advertising agency owner Ed Turner.

At that time, the parents lived in Cincinnati, and the boy spent his early childhood there. Then the family moved to Tennessee, where the hero of the article spent his school and student years.

Father often punished Ted physically. But he himself admitted that the beatings tempered his character, which helped him in adult life.

Youth Ted spent in various educational institutions of the closed type. The first school he attended was McCallie Boarding Academy. He never pleased teachers with exemplary behavior and constantly received reprimands. He was more interested in making stuffed squirrels that he caught on the school grounds.

Discipline breakers were forced to run half a mile around the school buildings. In the first six months of his training, Ted collected more than a thousand such punishments, which made teachers think about their ineffectiveness.

During school, Ted had to participate in team competitions. But nowhere did he succeed, which was due to his character of an individualist. The only area in which he achieved success was sailing. From the age of 9, Ted participated in sailing regattas. Often consciously took risks for the sake of victory. But at the same time there were cases when it crashed. Subsequently, he will become a two-time winner of the national sailing regatta.

School was over and Ted had to choose where to continue his studies. He himself wanted to enter the Faculty of Philology in order to become a teacher of the Greek language. The father did not like this decision, and he persuaded his son to get an economic education, which turned out to be very useful.

Studying at Brown University, Ted Turner had a good academic record, and he did not quit sailing. At the same time, he was known as a rake and a frequenter of student parties, who was popular with women. This is not surprising, because in his younger years, Ted Turner looks very attractive in the photo.

Later, after 3 years, he was expelled for immoral behavior on campus. The conflict could have been hushed up, but the student's behavior towards the university administration was too disrespectful.

Following in father's footsteps

Back home in 1960, Ted starts working for his father's firm. Perseverance and a smart mind helped to bypass local competitors in the advertising market. He soon married Judy Gale.

However, the marriage did not last long, as Ted's life began a black streak.

Despite the fact that Ted's division was doing well, the company as a whole was on the verge of bankruptcy. The father, unable to pay off his debts, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. But before that, he sold the company to competitors.

The family business was the only livelihood, so the young man decided to return it back. He turnedto the chairman of the advertising corporation "Turner Billboards" with a request to cancel the deal made by the father. But the chairman was adamant. He did not see an entrepreneur in Ed Turner's son, he considered him a simple playboy who wants to make easy money.

This rejection forced Turner Jr. to reconsider how he does business. He developed a new approach, which can be characterized by the slogan "Business is war." Ted had never considered others before, but after the paradigm shift, he began to act tough and uncompromisingly.

First win

Ted was able to redo the paperwork, which was a key link in the transition of the company, by talking over former members of his department. He then warned the new owners that if they did not cancel the deal made by the father, he would burn the documents proving its validity.

Turner Billboards once again underestimated Ted. As a business inexperienced person, they gave him an ultimatum: either he takes the $200,000 and drops his claims, or he pays the corporation $200,000 and becomes the owner of the family company.

The calculation was that greed would prevail, but Ted replied that he chooses his father's business.

Despite the fact that there was no money to pay, Ted managed to get out of this story without debt. He paid off by selling the family's shares.

The whole story gave entrepreneur Ted Turner confidence. It served as the basis for his further manner of doing business. He realized that business relationships are built on the principle of an animalpeace: either you eat or you will be eaten. In later life, he always took an offensive stance.

Television as a means of promoting business

The further success story of Ted Turner was associated with the development of television technology. It was 1964. Ted marries a second time, to actress Shirley Smith. Their marriage lasted 23 years, after which she left, leaving Ted with five children, three of whom he got from his second marriage, and two from his first.

The outdoor advertising business has reached the point where its development has stopped. There is an opinion among entrepreneurs that if there is no development, then a rollback is sure to occur. You can't be on the same level. Knowing this, Ted turned his attention to television and radio as new advertising tools. In addition, he decides to enlist support in the ruling circles and joins the Republican Party.

1967 was a turning point in the biography of Ted Turner. He becomes a media mogul by buying up the bankrupt television company WTCG. It was a news channel. To get him out of the crisis, it was necessary to interest the audience with something. And the first change that set it apart from the rest of the news channels was the shift in news release times. At that time, news was broadcast at the beginning and in the middle of every hour. Ted changed this time by moving it forward 5 minutes.

There have been many changes over the next 10 years. In 1970, thanks to the introduction of television technology, my father's advertising firm became the largest in the American Southwest. Then Turner Broadcasting was founded. Systems, under whose wing many successful television projects have been implemented. WTCG became more and more popular.

In 1976, businessman Ted Turner bets on broadcasting sporting events. In this regard, he buys the Atlanta Braves baseball team. Having exclusive rights to broadcast matches with the participation of this team, they managed to make good money. This was the reason for the purchase of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team.

He then acquired a lower ranked football and hockey team.

Birth CNN

1980 marked the birth of CNN. Ted Turner, creator of the first 24/7 news channel, fought for two years to make CNN a leader in its niche. At first, things went so badly that the channel was popularly called the Chicken Noodle Network, which meant "chicken soup television." The news coverage was meant to be as mundane as chicken broth. Losses at the time were more than $2 million a month, and employees were paid less than broadcast workers.

After 2 years, thanks to Ted's investment and his enthusiasm, the situation began to improve. His connections in the government helped him gain exclusive access to political events, battlefields.

The round-the-clock broadcast format has become so popular that news has been broadcast not only in the United States, but also in other English-speaking countries. The channel received branches in Japan (1982), inEurope (1985), and by the beginning of the new millennium, broadcasts were conducted in 7 languages.

Ted Turner managed to lure the most outrageous reporters from other channels, whose method of presenting information did not allow them to realize themselves. Here they, having received complete freedom of action, released news with little or no censorship. The only condition that the boss put before them was to be the first on the ground. Over the years, CNN correspondents have covered military operations in Iraq, the war in Yugoslavia, and an armed coup in Russia.

In 1986, Ted begins to try himself in the film industry. To begin with, he acquired the film company Metro Goldwyn Mayer. However, the purchase turned out to be unprofitable, and after 4 years of ownership, MGM had to be sold. This was the third time he was on the brink of bankruptcy. The only successful event that happened in Ted Turner's personal life during that period was his marriage to the famous actress Jane Fonda.

However, after the sale of MGM, Ted retained the rights to broadcast black-and-white films produced by the company. As a result, fans of westerns and vintage movies can go back in time with Turner Classic Movies.

This channel is different in that it has no ads at all. It is based on films that have earned the recognition of viewers of past years. There are no serials and low-grade films. In total, the collection includes over 5,000 tapes.

Risk is an inevitable companion of business

The biography of Ted Turner is replete with cases of risk when his enterpriseswere on the brink of failure. Three times he was on the verge of bankruptcy, and each time he found the strength to turn the tide. A Cable News Network executive recalled Turner asking himself, “Why am I in this business? I only have $100 million. I must be crazy.” For two years, creditors followed him, and he was on the verge of bankruptcy, but thanks to his irrepressible energy he succeeded.

A similar situation was in his passion for sailing. He often took risks. Once, after a shipwreck, he had to be rescued by helicopter. During one of the sailing races, a hurricane began. All participants were forced to lower the sails. The only one who didn't was Ted Turner. Then 15 athletes died in the hurricane.

From early childhood, Ted showed a rebellious spirit, which caused trouble for his loved ones. He said to himself: "I want to be the master of the world." Few people have such desires in childhood. But it was they who allowed him to become what he became. One of Ted Turner's famous quotes: “Business is a war in which the wounded are finished off and no prisoners are taken.”

Information business is growing

In 1989, Ted founded the entertainment television channel Turner Network Television. This was the beginning of the era of satellite television. Thanks to new technologies, TNT was broadcast in more than 200 countries.

In 1990, the sports and entertainment channel SportSouth appeared, which showed all significant sporting events. Besides,he covered Turner-owned sports teams.

Subsequently TNT was renamed Turner Broadcasting Systems Times Inc. Ted owned it for 8 years before selling it for $7.4 billion, retaining his position as vice president of the company.

CNN remained the main brainchild of businessman Ted Turner. He never interfered with the method of presenting information. Later he recalled: “I was always interested in news. Even before I founded CNN. I wanted not only to know them, but also to cover them. But what was the main thing in those years? Of course, the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States. I have always wondered how 12% of the world's population can decide the fate of the rest of the world: live or die?"

Famous philanthropist

Being a maximalist by nature, Ted devoted himself completely not only to business, but also, for example, to charity. Being a billionaire, he donated a third of his fortune to UN charitable projects. Back in the 1980s, he donated several million to the educational institutions where he studied. Then, in 1997, he publicly announced that he would donate $1 billion to charity. It was the first large-scale charitable project of its kind, and the first to carry it out was Ted Turner, who then had a personal fortune of $3 billion.

He received many reproaches for this act from outside, to which he always replied: “Yes, the UN is not perfect, like in any organization, it has bureaucratic shortcomings, but it has noble goals. HitNikita Khrushchev's shoe on the table is better than an atomic explosion.”

Through his act, Ted set an example for many we althy people on the planet. He said: “I am proud of what I have done. Many billionaires don't do anything useful for others. When I became one of them, I was shocked by their unwillingness to help humanity.” After that, he began to call on the media to voice the names of those who donate to good causes. After all, these billionaires are reveling in their position, watching their names move to the top positions in the lists of the richest people. It is possible that conscience will wake up in them, and charity will become a good form among the owners of capital.

Ted said he always liked doing generous things. At the same time, he noted that luck compensated for what he gave to others. And not always money. Sometimes these were good financial decisions, sometimes they were the right acquaintances, but everything somehow led him to success.

However, such decisions were not always easy for him. In the biography of Ted Turner's personal life, there is a moment when, being married to Jane Fonda, he did not dare to tell her about his desire to donate $ 1 billion to charity. After tormenting all night, he finally told her about it. In response, he heard: “It is for your generosity that I fell in love with you.”

As the owner of the largest news company, Ted is aware of the global problems of mankind. Knowing about them, he cannot but direct his efforts to combat them. In recent years, he spends his earned fortune on maintaining the environment, solving problemswomen's inequality, stands for general disarmament.

Activities in Russia

The activities of the media mogul have spread far beyond the United States. He was also noted in Russia. In 1992, he arrived in Russia with the aim of creating a joint television channel. This is how TV-6 was founded. But according to the Russian founder, Eduard Sagalaev, the contract had to be terminated because Turner wanted to have full control by appointing his own directors and managers, as well as owning more than half of the channel's stake.

As a result, the contract was terminated, and the channel went to Boris Abramovich Berezovsky. For some time, Turner bypassed Russia, but in 2001 he and a group of investors bought out Vladimir Gusinsky's stake in Mediamost.

In 2009 Ted Turner's book “Call me Ted” was published, which he presented in Russia. At the same time, he held a meeting with MGIMO students. The press published photos of Ted Turner speaking to students. As a messenger of peace, he wanted to convey to them the idea of the need to have friends in the West. After all, if you have at least one friend in any country, then you will not want to fight with it.

Now Ted, as before, works on new projects and spends money on charity. One of his new ventures is a chain of restaurants serving bison meat dishes. These animals were once considered an endangered species. This was the situation until Ted started breeding them on his own ranches.