Importance of Research & Development
Communications research and development have played a vital role in the expansion of UPI's worldwide news services through the years.
As described in Section II, UPI news bureaus and subscribers in the Europe/Africa/Middle East and Asia/Anzac divisions and in the U.S., Canada and Latin America are interconnected through computers in Brussels, Hong Kong and New York. Leased 24-hour multiplexed voice-grade circuits on satellites, underseas cables or landlines connect these computers.
This electronic method of gathering, editing and distributing news services is called Information Storage and Retrieval--IS&R.
The circuits also carry newspicture channels which bypass the computers. The pictures circuits normally operate independently in each area but can be interconnected to operate as a single worldwide circuit when news requirements dictate.
UPI reporters and editors in all bureaus in the U.S., Canada and Europe use Video Display Terminals (VDTs) to write, edit and transmit news copy. Original copy composed by a write appears on the screen in front of him. After he has written a story, he can edit it in any way he wishes, using the keyboard to make his corrections and changes. When he is satisfied with it, he files it to the New York computer where it is stored. Editors in New York or elsewhere in the system can call the story from the computer and re-edit it for the requirements of the subscribers in the area for which they are responsible, then file it to those subscribers at speeds ranging from 60 to 1,200 words per minute.
Early Communications
For many years after its founding in 1907, United Press news reports were transmitted to newspapers in the U.S. in dot-dash code by Morse operators. Tightly "cableized" and abbreviated reports were "dot-dashed" overseas on expensive commercial cable systems.
In the 1930s, these transmissions were replaced by teleprinters which printed copy entirely in capital letters.
Then came Teletypesetters which was introduced in the early 1950s. It permitted a newspaper to drive its typesetting equipment automatically to produce justified columns of type with capitals and lower case letters. UPI adapted this system to its newswires in 1950, using teletypesetter operators to hyphenate and justify news stories to a standard type size and column width. Their keyboards produced a punch paper tape to drive the newswires. At subscribing newspapers, the wire signals produced hard copy for editors to use and punched paper tape for automatic typesetting machines. Editors selected stories from the hard copy and sent them to the composing room where the corresponding tape was fed through automatic typesetting machines to produce type.
Automation Advances
In the early 1960s, UPI took another forward step in automation when it began to use computers to gather, compute and set stock market lists in the teletypesetter mode. The computer- produced UPI signals produced teletypesetter tape in newspaper composing rooms throughout the U.S., enabling the newspapers to set the lists in type automatically. The first electronically-calculated teletypesetter lists of the complete New York and American Stock Exchange quotations were transmitted by UPI to newspapers on January 23, 1963. This service, the first of its kind, was called Unistox.
In 1965, UPI began development of the IS&R system described at the beginning of this section. New York was chosen as the site for a centralized news data base and UPI began reconstructing its worldwide communications system to accommodate this concept.
Under the direction of James Darr, vice president, system development, UPI re-engineered and modernized its communications system in all the U.S. using the latest technology. Networks were rerouted so that all U.S. bureaus could transmit their copy to the New York computer. All communications fanned out from New York to carry UPI services to its subscribers.
In Brussels, UPI installed a switching computer and revised its European, African and Middle East communications systems so that Brussels was the hub with networks fanning out from there like spokes on a wheel.
The same thing was done in the Far East where Asian and Australian bureaus were connected to the Hong Kong switching computer.
Then UPI modified its trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific communications system so that, when the time came, it could connect the switching computers in Brussels and Hong Kong to the editing system in New York.
While UPI was changing its worldwide communications network, it was also designing its electronic news gathering, editing and distribution system. A feasibility study showed that the system was both technically and economically practical so UPI proceeded to build the first part--International IS&R.
International IS&R went on line in March 1972 and was completed in August of that year. UPI interconnected its worldwide communications system to the IS&R computers, installed 42 VDTs in New York, Washington and Chicago and put into operation the first completely electronic newsroom in the world--its New York bureau.
The next step was to connect the rest of the U.S. to the system. This became the Regional IS&R project, and the regional cutover was completed July 11, 1975, when the last of the UPI bureaus in the U.S. went on line.
Europe Joins IS&R
Europe will join the IS&R system early in 1978 by which time more than 500 VDT units will be on line to the system in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Mexico. Planning is now underway for adding South American bureaus to the full IS&R system.
The system costs about $12 million to design and implement. It can handle as many as 15 million words a day and will hold two days of copy. Each day's news files are run off onto magnetic tape every night at midnight for permanent storage.
IS&R has produced new and valuable services for UPI's subscribers. One of the most successful of these is DataNews.
DataNews combines UPI's general, domestic and international news, sports, business, regional and state reports in a single 1,200- word-per-minute service. DataNews was designed for computer-to- computer delivery of UPI news to newspapers' or other news agencies' electronic editing systems, but it can be received on high speed hard-copy printers as well. This service will be extended to Europe early in 1978.
DataNews also contains the full text services of the major U.S. feature syndicates and supplemental news services. Remotely programmable selectors assure delivery of the right material to the right newspaper at all times. Individual selectors can be reprogrammed instantly from the UPI computers as an individual subscriber's requirements change.
Satellites
UPI services to some overseas points have been delivered by satellite for some time but use of satellites within the U.S. has not been practical because of the high cost of ground station reception and interconnection with landlines for onward relay to subscribers. However, in order to combat rapidly increasing communications costs within the U.S., UPI began successful experiments early in 1977 with small-dish ground stations for satellite reception.
The first of these experiments in March at UPI headquarters in New York proved that the full array of UPI services--all newswires, the high speed DataNews service, Newspictures and Audio circuits-- could be received on one satellite receiver only six feet in diameter. Subsequent tests in which the Associated Press and American Newspaper Publishers Association joined, proved that all UPI and AP services could be received simultaneously on such a dish, the cost of which is estimated at approximately $5,000.
UPI and other cooperating organizations are seeking permission of the Federal Communications Commission to put such a system into operation in the U.S. If it is granted, the two news services and their subscribers would save hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in communications costs.
Such small, inexpensive satellite receivers are equally as practical for receiving international news, newspictures and voice reports. If government communications entities around the world would permit their installation at news agency, newspaper and broadcast receiving sites within their countries, the exchange of news among the news agencies of the world would be greatly enhanced. It is feared, however, that political considerations would prohibit such a simple and inexpensive receiving system.
International Communication Costs
Even now, however, the cost of international news communications could be reduced substantially if government communications entities would cooperate. Several years ago, International Telegraph and Telephone and RCA introduced what they called the Press Bulletin Service (PBS) tariff for slow speed (60- word-per-minute) news teletype transmissions. These tariffs call for a charge of $250 per month for use of 12 hours per day of channel time at the transmission or receiving end. Thus, 12 hours of daily teletype transmission or reception would cost $250 per month, 24 hours daily would cost $500. If the receiving point cooperated with a similar tariff, the total monthly charge for transmitting a news service from one point and receiving it at another would be $1,000 per month. If service in both directions 24 hours daily were desired, the total charge would be $2,000 per month.
Cable and Wireless of Great Britain began offering a similar service late in 1977. Some Latin American and Asian countries have cooperated with similar tariffs but a majority of the world's nations have refused, thus blocking an opportunity to make news exchange more economically feasible.
Newspictures
In 1975, UPI introduced a new concept in photo-facsimile equipment using the electrostatic recording process. Called Unifax II, the receiver is a 100 percent solid-state unit, the produce of three years of research and development. It is completely automatic and delivers glossy-quality prints on dry paper, in single sheets, stacked and ready for inspection and use.
Unifax II photo-facsimile receivers are in use at subscriber locations throughout the U.S., and international models are in service in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
UPI's 16-S portable telephoto transmitter, introduced several years ago, is the lightest, most reliable such unit in the world. It is completely automatic, will operate on both international and U.S. standards, and is sturdy enough to operate full time in a fixed news agency or newspaper location or be packed in its carrying case for use over telephone lines at a temporary location. It is used by UPI bureaus everywhere and more than 300 have been leased or sold to individual newspapers and national agencies in 18 countries outside the U.S.