UPI News Credibility Suffers as Top Editors Quit

United Press International’s three top editors, hired less than a year ago to rebuild the troubled news agency, resigned en masse Tuesday. They said they could “no longer assure the quality and integrity of the UPI report.”

According to sources within UPI, the three editors resigned in part because UPI owner Mario Vazquez Rana plans to lay off 300 employees, roughly a quarter of the wire service’s domestic staff.

Results of a spot survey of newspaper editors around the country suggested that the resignations have further eroded trust in the UPI news report.

The Chicago Tribune immediately suspended use of UPI news stories.

The departing editors are Ben Cason, editor, Barry Sussman, managing editor for national news, and Kim Willenson, managing editor for international news. Their resignations are effective Nov. 20.

On Job 10 Months

Vazquez Rana hired the three with much fanfare 10 months ago--Cason and Sussman from the Washington Post and Willenson from Newsweek magazine--as evidence of his commitment to rebuilding UPI. The Mexican publisher bought the struggling wire service out of bankruptcy last year for $41 million.

The resignations came only days after management, locked in stalled negotiations with the Wire Service Guild, unilaterally instituted work rules giving the company wide discretion to fire and lay off employees. The guild was scheduled to resume talks with UPI management today.

In a meeting with UPI employees, Sussman said he hoped that mangement now “might review the decision on the layoffs . . . rather than take two blows at the same time.”

Reacting to the resignations, newspaper editors expressed serious reservations about the news agency’s reliability.

Times Editor’s View

“There is no way in the world you are not going to think very seriously about it,” said William F. Thomas, editor of the Los Angeles Times, referring to his paper’s contract with UPI.

Chicago Tribune Editor James Squires said: “The reputation of the wire service has been so damaged by the loss of competent, well known journalists that, upon hearing of the resignations of Cason and Sussman, we are suspending any use of UPI here.” The Tribune, Squires said, is undecided whether to continue use of UPI photographs and captions, but its use of the service’s news reports has ended.

The three editors first considered resigning in July, when Vazquez Rana, concerned about overspending, told them he wanted to approve all newsroom hirings personally. He earlier had promised not to involve himself in the newsroom operation.

According to sources, their concerns grew last month, when Vazquez Rana insisted on approving almost all expenses and staffing decisions himself, down to authorizing reporters’ travel on assignment.

Absentee Ownership

Since Vazquez Rana runs his various publications from Mexico and only occasionally visits UPI’s Washington headquarters, the editors felt that their situation had become untenable.

None of the editors would comment publicly beyond the statements made to employees. Speaking for the company, UPI executive vice president Claude Hippeau said, “United Press International deeply regrets the departure” of the three executives. He said UPI will name a new editorial management team shortly.