United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th century until its eventual decline beginning in the early 1980s. At its peak, it had more than 6,000 media subscribers. Since the first of several sales and staff cutbacks in 1982, and the 1999 sale of its broadcast client list to its main U.S. rival, the Associated Press, UPI has concentrated on smaller information-market niches.

History

thumb|News room of United Press in New York, 1933

Formally named United Press Associations for incorporation and legal purposes but publicly known and identified as United Press or UP, the news agency was created by the 1907 uniting of three smaller news syndicates by the Midwest newspaper publisher E. W. Scripps.

In 1958, it became United Press International after absorbing the International News Service (INS) As either UP or UPI, the agency was among the largest newswire services in the world, competing domestically for about 90 years with the Associated Press (AP) and internationally with AP, Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP).

At its peak, UPI had more than 2,000 full-time employees and 200 news bureaus in 92 countries; it had more than 6,000 media subscribers. With the rising popularity of television news, the business of UPI began to decline as the circulation of afternoon newspapers, its chief client category, began to fall. Its decline accelerated after the 1982 sale of UPI by the Scripps company. With each change in ownership came deeper service and staff cutbacks and changes of focus and a corresponding shrinkage of its traditional media customer base. Since the 1999 sale of its broadcast client list to its one-time major rival, the AP, UPI has concentrated on smaller information market niches. It no longer services media organizations in a major way. BUP correspondents included future anchors Knowlton Nash and Walter Cronkite. In 1936, BUP launched Canada's first coast-to-coast radio newswire service providing news copy to private radio stations across the country.

In 1940, the Canadian government suspended the broadcast licenses of BUP and Transradio Press Service both of whom, unlike Canadian Press, sold commercial sponsorships for its news bulletins in violation of government policy. Transport minister C.D. Howe, who was responsible for broadcasting policy, announced that the two wire services must "show their news source is accurate" in order to retain their licenses. After complaints by Transradio that the move was an attempt by "selfish publishing and monopolistic interests … to destroy independent news services throughout the Dominion", the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which at the time was also responsible for regulating private radio broadcasters, agreed to reinstate Transradio's and BUP's licenses while also announcing a plan to enforce the ban on commercial news broadcasts by editing dispatches by the wire services before they were distributed to radio stations.

In 1958, when United Press merged with the International News Service to become UPI, British United Press was renamed United Press International of Canada. In 1979, 80% of UPI Canada was sold to the Toronto Sun newspaper chain and renamed United Press Canada. In 1985, UPC was sold to Canadian Press, which absorbed it.

United Press Associations

thumbnail|Portrait photograph of [[E. W. Scripps (businessman)|E. W. Scripps, ]]

Beginning with the Cleveland Press, publisher E. W. Scripps (1854–1926) created the first chain of newspapers in the United States. Because the then-recently reorganized Associated Press refused to sell its services to several of his papers, most of them evening dailies in competition with existing AP franchise holders, in 1907 Scripps merged three smaller syndicates under his ownership or control, the Publishers Press Association, the Scripps-McRae Press Association, and the Scripps News Association, to form United Press Associations, with headquarters in New York City.

In 2016, Corbis was sold to the Visual China Group.

UPI's remaining minority stake in UPITN was also sold and the agency was renamed Worldwide Television News (WTN). As with its photographs, UPI thereby lost all control of its newsfilm and video library, which is now held by WTN-successor Associated Press Television News, which entered the video news field long after UPI left it.

Years of mismanagement, missed opportunities and continual wage and staff cuts followed.

Notes

  • Helms, Richard, with William Hood. A Look over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency. New York: Random House, 2003.
  • Powers, Thomas. The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.
  • Read, Donald (1992). The Power of News. The History of Reuters 1849–1989. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .

Current

  • Spanish-language website
  • UPIU, UPI's multimedia platform for journalism education

History

  • Downhold.Org—UPI Alum site
  • UPI's Trail of Tears—subset of above: UPI history and memories
  • The Downhold Project—collaborative UPI history project site
  • Dead Microphone Club —UPI Radio Network Alum site