Message from Maxwell McCrohon


Message from then-UPI Editor in Chief Maxwell McCrohon:

Dear Colleague:

When I joined United Press International last year as editor in chief, my perspective was that of a newspaper editor. This perspective continues to guide me as we refine and expand the UPI news report.

My mission as part of the management team is to help UPI become more than a basic news service -- to be the competitive force against which other news agencies will measure themselves.

We are determined to be the news agency with a difference.

The difference will be in quality, depth and flexibility. It will lie in innovative graphics and daring feature stories. It will be reflected in newsbreaking stories that bring science, trends, health and leisure alive for editors who know they must stay abreast of the rapidly changing needs of their readers.

Sometimes we will go against popular trends. We believe that depth is often more important, for example, than brevity.

On April 3, UPI moved the first of its LIFE-SIZE interviews -- an intimate four-day conversation with Jacques Cousteau. The profile was beautifully written and ran 3,700 words. Editors from New York's Newsday to California's San Diego Tribune ran the story at length, accompanied by color and black and white photos that ran simultaneously on the UPI picture network.

Three weeks ago, we began a new feature called UPI CONTEXT. UPI CONTEXT moves immediately following major news stories and explains the principal players and/or provides a chronology for developments preceding the story. UPI CONTEXT provides the sidebarthat explains the background;thebox that helps the news editor present the whole picture.

When I joined UPI, I was struck by a number of impressions that have been reinforced in the past months:




  •  A vision and a commitment by the management to do all that is necessary
to take UPI to the next level of opportunity;

  •  An incredibly dedicated, loyal staff of photographers, writers and editors;

  •  An effective mix of young people and seasoned veterans such as Helen
Thomas, Leon Daniel and Greg Jensen;

  •  Reporters who cheerfully leave their own birthday parties to follow a story
in the Carolina mountains for nearly three weeks--without stopping to pack an
overnight bag.

  •  Reporters in Central America who drive all night on risky roads in dangerous
territory to get a story first.

    • There is enormous pride and competitive edge in this organization.

    As a newspaper editor, I had great respect for UPI's picture service. As editor in chief of UPI, I have even more respect for it. The managing editor for pictures, Ted Majeski, runs the most aggressive picture operation I have ever seen. His photographers will dare far more than an editor has the right to expect in order to get the right picture. Beirut photographer Jack Dabbaghian was wounded in the leg in February; he recovered and is now Beirut bureau chief. His colleague Leighton Mark was shot in the shoulder in March leaning over a balcony to take pictures of street fighting; he is recuperating in the United States.

    These are people who work for you and your readers.

    In the following pages you will find details of the progress UPI has already made, and information about our plans for the future.

    We continue to stress local and regional coverage, as evidenced by the recent expansion of our local news service for the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

    We have radically restructured our editorial management team to implement fresh strategies for newsfeatures, graphics, greater depth and analysis of major stories, UPI CONTEXT, science and medicine, investigative reporting, business and sports.

    The results are beginning to flow onto the UPI wires. The momentum will build.