SPECIAL REPORT TO EDITORS: QUALITY:
RESOURCES
A program that fosters editorial excellence is based on efficient use of all resources,
UPI's new management commissioned research to determine those areas in which the existing system could stimulate excellence and be made more effective and more responsive to the marketplace. The result has been implementation of a far-reaching program aimed at maximizing UPI's domestic and international resources and bringing about structural changes that contribute directly to improved service and product quality.
Major areas include:
Division Reorganization UPI has established seven regional divisions and has appointed senior managers to be the key news and picture posts. This launched a continuing program of decentralized management that has enabled UPI to work more closely with subscribers. It also has encouraged creativity on the division and local level, with the divisions producing special news, feature, business and sports coverage tailored to the needs of each region.
New World Headquarters News and central management functions have been consolidated in the new World Headquarters in Washington, D.C., resulting in greater coordination and efficiency and a reduction of overhead costs. UPI's new offices, custom designed for the news needs of the 1980s and beyond, house some of the most sophisticated facilities in the industry for all aspects of news gathering and distribution.
Desk Restructuring UPI's Cables and Foreign Desks, handling incoming and outgoing overseas news, have been merged into a single, high-quality International Desk in Washington. Desk dealing with national news, previously split between New York and Washington, have been consolidated into a single National Desk in Washington. The new desk structures have significantly improved editorial flexibility and efficiency.
------ PHOTO: UPI World Headquarters Building, Washington, D.C. ------
A new Assignment Desk will set priorities, redeploy editorial personnel, guide regional editors and develop and direct special projects. The desk will handle special client requests for story and picture coverage.
New Talent The news agency's editorial and management team has been strengthened and broadened in 1983 and 1984 as the new UPI combines the expertise of talented editors, writers and admininstrators from within and outside the company.
Maxwell McCrohon came to UPI from the Tribune Company as editor in chief, to join William Small, UPI president, in reshaping the UPI report. Andrea Herman, after 23 years as a writer for the Chicago American, Baltimore News American, Mainichi Shimbun and the San Diego Tribune, joined UPI as assistant managing editor for news features. Lou Giserman joined the UPI Radio Network as news director from Atlanta's award winning all-news station WGST.
The year also saw the return of such key former staffers as foreign correspondent Michael Keats, who became vice president for Asia, and David Wiessler, now Washington bureau chief.
------ PHOTO: UPI news hub, Washington ------
EDITORIAL TRAINING
UPI has begun an editorial training program to meet the highest standard of editing and writing.
Veteran reporter and former foreign editor Paul Varian has developed and implemented a comprehensive training program for UPI staff in all divisions. The program focuses on consistency of style and excellence in writing and editing.
EDITORIAL IMPROVEMENTS
UPI has introduced editorial improvements that include:
Improved Stocks Service Improved stock market services from UPI now include transmission of final NYSE nationwide composite tables on all stock circuits shortly after the CTA high-speed circuit closes. All newspapers with UPI can now give readers true composite closing prices. A dramatic UPI innovation in stocks service, Fintext, promises to become the next major step in tabular services.
------ PHOTO: "The guts of this business will always be fast, accurate reporting worldwide. This is the first priority." -- Lucien Carr, Assistant Managing Editor, News ------
Increased Business Coverage Special writers have been appointed to develop regional business stories to complement UPI's national business report. Economist and author Michael K. Evans has begun twice-weekly columns for UPI called "Dollars and Trends," taking readers beyond the headlines into detailed examinations of national and regional economic trends.
New Science Features UPI has expanded its coverage of science, health and technology. The science package will be moved once a week to ensure timeliness. An enlarged science staff now includes writers in San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. UPI's World Headquarters in Washington will increase its staff from two to three science writers.
News Briefs UPI has introduced tightly written packages of news, sports and business briefs to help newspapers make the best use of valuable space.
Special Section Packages UPI has introduced packaged feature stories and photos keyed to seasonal newspaper needs such as back-to-school, home care, weddings, fashion, personal investing, health, fitness and automobile maintenance.
International Writers' Service UPI now has world distribution rights to International Writers' Service. UPI provides exclusively to its clients three articles per week from foreign journalists. The articles, designed for use in op-ed or news pages, offer fresh views of other countries, other cultures, and other ways of looking at a world that grows smaller every day. They are written by leading British, European, Scandinavian, Australian and Asian journalists.
------ PHOTO: Space shuttle Challenger surrounded by lightning. First place, Science/Natural History, NPPA Pictures of the Year, 1984. ------
INTERNATIONAL SERVICE
Expansion of the international service is being accomplished through the International Desk in UPI's Washington headquarters and includes:
Staff Expansion Veteran foreign correspondent and bureau manager Jack Payton has been appointed assistant manging editor, international, to develop UPI's international news report. The international reporting staff based in the United States has been doubling the size of the U.N. bureau and adding several correspondents to cover the United States for international clients.
------ PHOTO: "In an increasingly interdependent world, international events affect us all. We must provide a thorough and wide-ranging news report to make these events understandable." -- Jack Payton, Assistant Managing Editor, International ------
Latin American Services Picture editor Miguel Angel Cuarterolo has joined UPI from Argentine national picture agency, Dairios y Noticias, to work on the picture report for Latin America. Four new photographers will soon join UPI to improve our already excellent picture coverage of Latin and Central America for U.S. and European subscribers.
International News Briefs UPI has introduced news columns and special reports from Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada, developing nations and the United Nations.
GRAPHICS
Editors in the United States and overseas are seeking graphic support for news and feature stories, delivered fast and stylishly. UPI will expand its graphics service, adding new staff and introducing the latest in graphics technology. We believe the result will be truly excellent graphics service.
UPI will provide news and feature graphics for newspapers; color and black and white graphics service to television stations; and a special color service to selected newspapers. The expanded graphics staff will develop a service for feature section design and the delivery of integrated feature/graphics packages.
NEWS FEATURES
UPI's new assistant managing editor for features, Andrea Herman, is establishing a core of talented writers in Washington and teams of special writers in seven domestic and three overseas divisions.
Herman directs the Features Desk in Washington which assigns, edits and coordinates all feature production including hard news, trends, fashion, style and personality profiles. A feature writer from the Dallas Times Herald, Iris Krasnow, has joined UPI in Washington. Additional writers will be assigned to increase UPI's coverage in the important areas of science and medicine.
A series of 12 interviews, LIFE-SIZE, providing in-depth profiles of frontline newsmakers, was launched in April. The first LIFE-SIZE, focusing on Jacques-Yves Cousteau, moved on the UPI DataNews network simultaneously with seven black and white and color pictures of Cousteau on the UPI picture network. Editors welcomed the change-of-pace story and played it well.
Subsequent LIFE-SIZE interviews will focus on such newsmakers as: Melina Mercouri, Willy Brandt, Paul Bocuse, Pierre Cardin and Norman Mailer.
------ PHOTO: "We'll be looking for the interview no one else can get, the question no one else will ask. We want that 'can't resist' combination of story and art, delivered together to the editor's desk. We want to catch the story on the rise and deliver it overnight." -- Andrea Herman, Assistant Managing Editor, Features ------
PHOTO LIBRARY
A new arrangement between UPI and the Bettmann Archive provides subscribers with immediate access to the vast resources of the world's great historical graphic library, including the BCC Hulton Picture Library in London as well as the UPI Photo Library and the Bettman Archive. The agreement makes available to UPI subscribers more than 25 million fully indexed negatives.
------ PHOTO: From the UPI Photo Library: The Hindenburg zeppelin explodes and burns, May 6, 1937. ------
NEW SERVICE COMPANY
As part of its drive to provide outstanding service to subscribers, UPI has formed UPI Service Company, Inc., to provide a single point of contact for service and maintenance of UPI receiving printers and earth station equipment.
The new company, staffed by executive engineers and communications specialists, will ensure improved and more responsive and uniform service for UPI subscribers.
UPISC will handle all installation and depot maintenance on Harris and Equatorial satellite earth station receiving systems, and provide on-site, 24-hour maintenance for other communications equipment. Calls for service for all UPI subscribers will be directed to UPISC at a toll-free number.
UPISC will maintain a network of highly trained technicians to units of equipment will be consistently higher than the national average for third-party companies that do such work.
The UPISC service will be tied to a sophisticated computer system to allow technicians, supervisors and UPI managers to monitor service history at all subscriber locations. The result will be better service, clear accountability at all levels and a system that is as simple for subscribers as making one phone call.