Mexican Publisher Sells Majority Stake in UPI

Mario Vazquez Rana, the Mexican newspaper publisher, announced Friday night that he has sold control of United Press International and that the former president of Financial News Network will take over direct operational control of the company.

The transaction took the form of a sale by the Mexican media executive of an “irrevocable proxy” of his stock ownership in UPI to WNW Group Inc. United Press International, in an announcement moved on its news wires, said the transfer was effective immediately.

The announcement said that Vazquez Rana relinquished his control over the news service in return for “present and future financial considerations totaling more than $55 million.”

Vazquez Rana bought UPI for $41 million in June, 1986, ending bankruptcy court proceedings that began in April, 1985, when the news service filed for protection from creditors.

The announcement did not identify the owners of WNW Group. UPI spokesman Christopher Smith said he believed WNW Group is an independent company with no connection to FNN.

Smith said that Vazquez Rana “considers his task of investment in UPI completed at this time.”

Smith said additional details would be released at a news conference, probably Monday.

The UPI announcement said that the new president of the news service will be Paul Steinle, former president of Financial News Network, a 24-hour cable-TV distributor of business news. The announcement said he would have “total operational control of day-to-day management.”

The announcement identified the chairman of WNW Group as Dr. Earl Brian but provided no further identification.

The UPI announcement also listed three directors of WNW: J. Alexander McMahon, chairman and professor of the Health Services Administration Department at Duke University; James Thistle, director of the school of journalism at the college of communications at Boston University, and Erik Hendricks, executive director of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and a former journalist.

Vazquez Rana’s statement said: “This step was necessary because I could not devote a sufficient amount of time to hands-on management.”