75th Anniversary -- Looking to the Future
United Press is aggressively tackling the challenges of the 1980s and beyond.
Technical developments during the '70s came at a dazzling pace. This demands a larger capital commitment than the company had experienced in its previous 63 years, but positioned UPI to expand and prospect in the information-based economy of the 1980s.
Some of the areas in which UPI is moving ahead:
UPI was the first in the mid-1970s to propose a massive domestic shift from traditional AT&T land lines to satellite news delivery. UPI already has hundreds of "earth stations" working at client locations. As the company installs dishes and removes terrestrial facilities, transmission costs will drop and reliability will increase. Eventually, UPI expects to have in place a network of 3,000 to 4,000 earth stations which are being offered to all subscribers.
The first "Digital Darkroom" was installed in New York in late 1981. A second is slated for Europe this year. With this system, several hundred newspictures can be electronically stored, as well as electronically cropped, enlarged and captioned. UPI engineers envision the introduction of modified Digital Darkrooms at newspapers, eliminating laboratory costs and increasing the speed of photo processing. Electronic picture "morgues" will become the norm.
------ PHOTOS: UPI's Technical Systems Center, opened in Dallas in June 1979, houses the nerve center for UPI's worldwide computer and communications network. The center's Univac computers, the most sophisticated of any news service, are supported by an "Uninterruptable Power Supply," to safeguard against power failures. Staff engineers work in a state-of-the-art computer environment (above); an earth station on the roof of the building pulls UPI signals in from space (left) ------
Early in 1982, UPI announced the 16-S Color transmitter, a modification of the machines first built for black and white pictures. The new transmitter, installed at bureaus around the world, will dramatically increase the number of color offerings on Unifax II. The same 16-S Color transmitter is available to newspapers for use in making in-house color separations.
With satellite reception, the UPI Audio Network is now delivered at studio grade voice quality -- far better than phone lines. UPI's radio network reaches more than 1,000 affiliate stations. Another exclusive service, Broadcast DataNews, is benefiting from the switch to satellite delivery. Copy tailored to the needs of radio and TV stations arrives at 1,200 words per minute, coded either for hard copy or for use in computerized newsrooms now being installed by broadcasters.
------ PHOTOS: Entering new markets: UPI's database is utilized by the Dow Jones Information Service in Princeton, N.J. (above); and by Newstrack, a new UPI service launched in Washington offering specialized information "on demand" (right). ------
UPI has been an innovator in news services for cable television. UPI Cable News, an alphanumeric news wire, is the industry's largest, serving about 600 cable systems. As such systems expand, UPI plans enhanced cable services with local and regional news content and specialized "lifestyle" programming delivered at high speed for multiple channel selection and viewing. UPI also is working with client newspapers to adapt UPI Cable News for use in newspaper-operated CATV programming.
------ PHOTOS: UPI Audio Network engineering sets up a newcast as UPI goes "on the air" (above, middle); an editor at WBTV in Charlotte, N.C., calls up a story from the station's in-house computer system. WBTV uses UPI's high-speed Broadcast DataNews service (below). ------
With a dynamic database of up to 13 million words per day being continually updated, few doubts of the potential of UPI's role in a developing information economy. The final form of services best suited to such an economy is still to take shape, although almost a dozen lease arrangements have already been concluded with information retrieval organizations.
UPI also has entered into experimental joint ventures making use of its database, and is developing and formatting new proprietary products on its own to be delivered via its worldwide communications facility.
One such development is called "Newstrack," designed to provide specialized information on demand for industry trade associations, government watchers and others.
Down the road lie more specialized ventures in editorial research systems, a statistical report on congressional and regulatory activities and profiled background reports. All could be utilized by newspapers or broadcasters, as well as by others who need fast and reliable information.
------ PHOTO: "We are constantly experimenting to find new and better ways of reporting the news. The big, fast-breaking story, swiftly and accurately covered and vividly told, remains the backbone of the service. UPI has added a new dimension to its coverage of news -- the background and meaning of the event, and reporting more about the people and situations involved in the headline . . ." -- A. Mims Thomason ------
In addition, UPI is working with a number of newspapers, broadcast organizations and other information companies, as well as major universities, to test concepts and market reaction to the entire spectrum of electronic retrieval of data.
While UPI is exploring these new areas, the new service continues to enhance and develop its most essential products, the news and picture reports. New bureaus have been added, and there is an increasing effort to examine in depth the complex issues of the day, from Social Security to El Salvador.
UPI's report is placing more emphasis on relating news and economic development to people. More stories are being carried on the financial world and consumer-related topics, focused on individuals and their problems.
At the heart of UPI's efforts is the company's most valuable resource, the 2,000 full-time employees who are involved in telling the world what the world is doing. Their tools are far different and the subjects they cover are light years advanced from those of the small group that started it all in 1907.
The object remainsthe same: truth communicated.
------ PHOTO: "UPI has never been stuffy, and I trust no one would dare call us dull. I hope we are intelligent, or at least smart when it counts. Along with honesty and integrity, which we all expect from each other, those have been the essentials for 75 years. They will continue to be as we move forward to the 21st Century and UPI's 100th anniversary." -- Roderick W. Beaton ------ PHOTO: UPI around the world: (Clockwise from above) UPI's John Moody, Kiki Lundberg and Walter Wisniewski in Moscow; photographer Shunsuke Akatsuka capturing color in Tokyo; London Bureau Manager Pat McCarty with Mike Dennigan; and engineer Karl Buck in Brussels, preparing for the installation of the bureau's Digital Darkroom. ------