Sunday, January 9, 2011

All: This Is My Last Day - Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

One of the joys of working at UPI was getting to know many very talented reporters and editors. Unfortunately, we never got to meet many of the people whose names appeared atop stories and on the daily message wire exchanges.
I was fortunate in that I worked in Washington, D.C., and was in contact with a large staff.
Among the personalities was Ed Rogers.
Ed started in the South and in Washington he served as our Southern regional reporter. There are many stories floating around about Ed, but this is among the favorites.
In 1953, the national desk in New York alerted all bureaus to be on the lookout for an expected list of American servicemen who had been captured in Korea and were to be freed from Chinese POW camps. All bureaus were told to contact relatives for quick reaction.

According to those who knew Ed, he awaited the list in usual mode – armed with three packs of Camel cigarettes, a bag of peanuts and a beverage in a brown paper bag.
When the list came out, Ed spotted the name of PFC John Engle, son of Mrs. Edna Engle of Monteagle, Tenn. No other address was listed.
The telephone operator told Ed that there was no Edna Engle listed and there was no phone service to Monteagle, located at the top of a mountain serviced by a winding two-lane highway.
He called the Grundy County Sheriff's office and persuaded the deputy on duty to drive up the mountain and bring Edna Engle to his office.
About an hour later, Edna Engle was on the phone and Ed interviewed her. When he was finished talking with Edna, Ed filed this urgent:
URGENT
With Red China
MONTEAGLE, Tenn. (UP) -- Mrs. Edna Engle, upon learning that her son John had
been freed from a Red Chinese Prisoner of War camp, said early this morning,
"I have no son named John.”

The year 1991 started with the liberation of Kuwait from Iraq and the death of an estimated 200,000 Iraqis. Yugoslavia ceased to be, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia left the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union was dismantled, Jeffry Dahlmer was arrested and charged with at least 17 deaths of young men who he had lured to his home for sex. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas was accused by Anita Hill of sexual harassment, four white police officers were videotaped beating Rodney King and Rajiv Gandhi, the former prime minister of India, was assassinated.

It was also the year that a group of Saudi investors bought United Press International, pulling the company out of its second bankruptcy and expanding its involvement in the Middle East. Unfortunately for the rank and file Unipressers, they received word of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the New York Times. The company couldn't tell its own employees first.

Steve Geimann, assistant managing editor for regional, was named Washington bureau chief to replace Schwartz.

And Unipressers continued to provide the world with news with smaller pay checks and a never-ending chorus of farewell messages -- and the tension was showing.

rossiter-wa
I’ve just been handed a notice frm building management saying we “are hereby required within three (3) days after this notice is served” to pay up or get out. U want me to fax it to u? thx
Martin-hc (Los Angeles)

vanbennekom
hipps UPI
UPI-whoever
it is now 5 months since my employment agreement was terminated by UPI. UPI has yet to pay me 5,850 dollars owed for time worked. I have exhausted my calls and letters and received no response.
This is not money owed for severance or vacation. It is money owed to me by UPI for time put in as an employee of UPI. If UPI cannot afford to pay out $5,850 in one payment, contact me and we can set up a payment plan. Ignoring me does not mean I’ll forget the money or go away.
Thank you (unsigned)

There were attempts from management to shore up morale.

All
I am impressed with our budget coverage, from the main lead crafted by Bud Newman — with help from all hands — to the various sidebars on agencies, effects, themes and analyses. Despite the adversity that challenges us every day, everyone worked hard to give our clients the important details about the spending plan. Our copy was well-written, well-edited and well-sourced, especially by those thrown into the lurch by a war that has sapped our crew. Everyone on the Washington staff deserves kudos for their work yesterday. I want to especially acknowledge Dave Rosso, Steve Gerstel, Bob McNeill and Bud Newman, whose thoughts and ideas in the days before the budget was released helped shape our coverage. Chrs
(Steve) Geimann (Washington)

But rancor is oftentimes very difficult to salve, especially when there is so much precedence.

Geimann-buo
In a deliberate effort to make ur day even more miserable, I ask the rhetorical question: so, is the world’s largest…wire service gonna pay overtime for this little muscle flexing exercise that brought me in early on a religious holiday to cover what’s left of our butt in a field deemed too insignificant to cover in the future? Or what? Brenner-war
9-18-91
Brenner was Eliot Brenner, who for years had worked side-by-side with me on the Washington desk, before he moved across the Potomac River to cover the Pentagon.

Geimann
Hm (Concord, N.H.) stringer Jim XXXX is owed at least $1,000 et has not received anything over two months. He has talked with uu et others in wa et fx (Fairfax, Va., where UPI had set up administrative offices) and has been told at various times:
--you’re on the priority stringer list
--a check will be cut for you on Friday
--the money ran out before they got to you, but a check will be cut this Friday and you’re on the top of the list.
--there’s no one here who can talk to you about that.
--there’s no one here who can talk to you about that
--there’s no one …
eye wud greatly appreciate it if this pathetic company wud stop lying to him and give him some straight answers. Are we no longer paying stringers? Is there really a priority stringer list?
Thayer is the only help eye hv and he is responsible for writing all weekend radio. If he quits because of lack of payment, as so many stringers already have, there will be NONO weekend radio.
Our remaining New Hampshire radio clients are already under a great deal of pressure because they get no Maine or Vermont copy and hm closes as 2 p.m. weekdays. If they see nothing on the weekends they will be forced to cancel.
Cud eye get a response to this from uu or anyone in charge (if anyone still is)?
Rgds
Van dongen-hm

Stringers were reporters who worked by the story. They were paid by the story, received no benefits and were on-call. The stringer situation was serious and Van Dongen was correct in his descriptions. There, indeed, was a priority list. During my last years at UPI, I dealt with overseas stringers, which, at the time (1996-1999) were substantial since UPI had pretty much closed all overseas bureaus and turned most, if not all, of our overseas reporters into stringers. I fielded many calls from stringers asking about their pay. And there was a priority list. I will go deeper into the stringer situation in a later chapter.
Meanwhile, Al Rossiter continued to try to sooth the crew.
Unipressers
This is an unsettling time for staffers and I understand that. But while the lawyers for the company, the union and our creditors argue their positions, we must continue to serve our clients to the best of our ability.
I want to make sure everyone understands our goal: It is to report the news as well as we can. Our clients are varied and their needs are varied. Therefore, we must cover as many newsworthy events as possible. We must provide analysis and insight where it is required. And of foremost importance, we must be certain our copy is accurate, is understandable and is balanced. Nothing will turn off clients faster than copy that violates those principles.
The length of our newspaper copy should be dictated by the story and its significance, not by a formula that says every story must be 400 or 600 or 800 words long. There is nothing wrong with the 100-, 150- and 200-word stories. Few newspapers have room for more than a few graphs for anything but the most important events of the day. Broadcasters certainly have no need for excess wordage.
Our national report needs more of the shorter stories that move on state reports. If the story is one that might be printed in more than one region, then it should move on the national service. We must remember our clients are a diverse lot with diverse requirements.
The needs of state reports vary, depending on our client base. I will be in touch with all regional and state editors in the next few days to review their reports and explore ways to improve them. Our goal is to serve every client we have today and to prepare a report that will attract new business.
We will be making changes next week in some areas of our operation, particularly in sports, business, Washington coverage and photos. I’ll have a detailed memo discussing these changes, and what they mean to the operation, later this week.
Some of our colleagues have received notices and will be leaving the company in the days ahead. Their contributions were appreciated and they will be missed. But those of us who remain must press ahead. UPI can survive, and grow, and provide new jobs in the future, but it will take the continued dedication and perseverance of all of us to make that happen.
Thanks
rossiter-wa
09-23-91

Rossiter was a sincere man and he was liked and respected, not only as a manager, but as a reporter and an editor. But there were things happening far beyond his control.

rossiter-geimann-wa (hill-ar (Seattle))
the sept. 25 issue of the Seattle weekly, the city’s major “alternative” paper, contains an item titled “wire cutters” that details the fate of the Seattle buro. The article says, quote, “last week the wire service laid off two of its Seattle staff writers, Terrance Finan and Dennis Ainsley, according to UPI public relations spokesman Milt Capps.”
The fact that my first name was spelled wrong and Dennis’s last name was completely wrong (it’s Anstine) is laughable, at worst. What is not laughable is the possibility that the abysmal moral and ethical sensibilities of UPI’s top management have sunk to such lows that it doesn’t matter (to them) if they make public the names of once-dedicated employees who have been thrown out of their jobs without ceremony, severance or so much as a thank you for a job done well.
All of Seattle knows that Dennis and I are unemployed as of next week. But somehow, I don’t think this is going to keep me awake tonight; I have more important things in my life to attend to. For the record though — and for the sake of others who may, too, find their names in print as the reward for what they have done for UPI — can someone please explain what the company’s policy is on this and what kind of reasoning (if any) led to it?
Finan-ar

And the farewell message flood continued, including this one from David Anderson, who started at UPI two years before I did, was an active union member and eventually became our religion editor.

Unipressers
It was 1967 and the pay was $62.50 a week, the job was sorting the mail, getting Gerstel’s smokes, taking Helen’s dictation, picking up a sandwich for Brenner (Bernie, not Eliot) and changing the ribbon on Frandsen’s (Julius, not Jon) teletype. There’s been a lot of learning since then — most especially from such good comrades as Dave Wiessler, Arnie Sawislak, George Marder, Liz Wharton, Leon Burnett, Bob McNeill, David Rosso and a lot of others, too. There’s been a lot of decent hangovers — at Bassin’s, the Curtain Call, the Mozart and so many reincarnations of the Blue Mirror a religion writer could start believing in life after … well — and some indecent political arguments and just one hell of a lot of good fun. Now that part is over. The pay aint much better but I’d still be glad to get Gerstel’s smokes for him, take dictation from Helen anytime and I’d consider fetching Brenner whatever he needed. I’m still learning from Wiessler.
But it’s just the end of a chapter, not the book and, at least for the moment, eye’ll still be around on occasion, opening books, cajoling reviews.
Dylan said “good-bye is too good a word/so I’ll just say fare thee well.”
So be it … and may peace and justice be with you in your … our … struggle
d.Anderson-wa

Unipressers
After 13 years and one month with UPI, eye’m logging out tda (this time real). But even with the 35 percent pay cut and UPI’s uncertain future, it still saddens me greatly to leave. As many, many departing Unipressers b4 me have said, it’s the people who have always made UPI a special place to work. And tts true tda. Eye wish only the best for all of u et UPI. Chrs
Lowry-us (mg) (Austin, Tex., Montgomery, Ala.)
1-11-91

Allbureaus
Dear Unipressers
I arrived at UPI in the middle of the Vietnam War and I am leaving in what I hope is the middle of the Persian Gulf War. My arrival was with joy. My departure is with regrets — regret that the war in the Gulf is not over and that I’ll miss seeing its end with UPI and regret that the future of this once-grand worldwide wire service is so dark. I hope UPI does indeed rise from its ashes as did the phoenix.
My resignation is effective Saturday but I am gone as of now, Monday, January 21, 23 years, two months and three days after I arrived.
A job I could not pass up fell into my lap. I am going back to my origins — the city news bureau of Chicago, now 100 years old and going strong. This time, I’ll be the broadcast faculty at CNB.
One thing that won’t change is that I will still be trying to train young reporters to think broadcast. I think UPI should have focused on television and radio far more in the past to shore up its finances (but who asked me?) I mean ALL of UPI broadcast. The state reports are just as important, perhaps more so, than the national report because of all of the stations with network and other affiliations.

I apologize for leaving the dedicated Unipressers who are still waging the good fight for UPI — from Helen Thomas on down the list. May you all win this war.
My login password in recent weeks has been godsaveUPI. Maybe someone with more faith than I can take over this password and successfully raise the phoenix.
(Susan) stevens-upr-hx (UPI Radio, Chicago)

All Unipressers
After 15 years, most of them good ones, it’s time for me to call it quits at old UPIou.
When I first started at UPI, I would find myself waking up in the middle of the night out of sheer happiness, anticipating the day ahead, planning how I could make the bells ring around the world and how I and people like Juan Walte and Matt Quinn and Helen Thomas and Lori Santos at the White House and people like Dave Wiessler and Sean McCormally on the desk, would dropkick AP right out of the stadium.
I OD’ed on the sensation of filing an urgent at about 6 p.m. and then, about ten minutes later, hearing the screams from the AP booth at the other end of the State Department press room. In a way, I am prouder of the fact that we knocked down phony scoops from the other end of the press room — the fictitious 10,000-foot runways which existed only in the fevered mind of Ollie North and the AP copy.
Recently, I also found myself waking up in the middle of the night, but in despair — at stories that would get lost on the desk, at bells that didn’t ring because there was nobody home out there in client-land, at unpaid expenses, at k-market computers that would crash at the worst possible moments, at a newsroom that began to look more and more like the night of the living dead.
While we were doing our best on the wire — better than the competition most of the time — there were people in charge of our financial destinies who shouldn’t have been in charge of a bicycle rack.
At one time, I counted 28 UPI vice presidents, 27 more than the U.S. government had. The ninth floor looked like yuppy heaven, with self-important, overpaid little twerps going to lunch with each other at our expense.
Little by little, week by week, I came to realize that what I was doing wasn’t valued very much, economically or journalistically, and I think this affected what I was doing. No pumping adrenalin, with conflicting editorial direction, systematically drained of some of the money I used to earn, my work began to show it and I was no longer happy with it. That’s nature’s way of saying, “move on, bozo.”
For a brief magic moment, my career and UPI’s high point coincided. It’s time to leave before all that magic is gone. I leave with tremendous respect for those I worked with. I continue to be constantly amazed how good the copy looks, especially the foreign report, even though there are now big geographical gaps. Having worked one Sunday shift in the Washington bureau, I stand in awe at the amount of copy that the national editors move — quickly, accurately and coherently. I can’t imagine most newspapers needing any more or any better.
But I can imagine a lot of financially pressured newspapers or broadcast managers taking the easy way out and cutting the UPI service. The news for these no-brainer bottom-liners is that if UPI goes under, three things will happen: the AP guys will stop running for the phones, the AP (and Reuters) price will go up dramatically and the staffs of both AP and Reuters will be cut back. Bet on it.
I’m starting Monday to work in Washington for the English language wire of DPA, the German news agency, where I won’t be competing with you directly, but where I will see your work. I will be pulling for all of you and for UPI.
Logging out
Jim Anderson (State Department)

Unipressers
Well, something I didn’t expect to see for a long time has arrived — my last weekend shift at UPI. It’s been an up and down 2 1/2 years, with most of the downs coming in the last few months. UPI has been good to me until the layoffs started, and I wouldn’t be leaving if things had not deteriorated to their present state of affairs. Even if the powers that be have stripped this old girl of most of her dignity, at least those of us who have been here these last several months can be proud that we’ve pretty much weathered what’s been thrown at us.
I’ll miss many of you as I leave to edit the alumni magazine at hahnemann university and hospital here in Philly, and think the message wire will be what I’ll miss most of all. I’ve been proud to be associated with this company and all the professionals who have worked here and still work here. Whatever happens, I’ll be thinking of you.
Chrs and good luck to all of you.
Sue morgan-na (Philadelphia)

Buos
This is my last shift at UPI after 8 ½ years in hx (Chicago) and wa (Washington). UPI being UPI, I’ve fantasized about my farewell msg for years (die, berl, die—stuff along those lines). But now that it’s time to say good-bye, I’m having trouble finding the right words. I came to this company as a 23-year-old mess and leave it, surprisingly, in somewhat better shape. Thnx to all of us who made it fun along the way.
Rgds. Silverman-ntl (National-Washington)

all
I’ll be logging out later today for the last time, ending a relationship with Unipressers that goes back to July 1966 on the day the hough riots swept Cleveland into the national headlines.
The years that followed allowed me to travel to many sections of the country, working with the finest wordsmiths ever put on the planet and my leaving is more bitter than sweet. But I’ve received an offer that I cannot refuse, for my family’s sake more than anything else.
We’ve all carried the same banner since last November, cutting salaries and home budgets in hopes that UPI can be saved. It became rather tattered piece of cloth near the end, but carry it we did, with honor above all.
The rally cry has always been that UPI’s only assets are its name and its employees. But the recent days seem to indicate that upper management is keen on the idea of cutting the assets to just one. And we are not on the list.
We were told three times here in hx (Chicago) by pb (Pieter Van Bennekom) that bankruptcy was never in the scenario. He proved the proof of his own words when he carried us over that brink for the second time in six years, telling us that chapter 11 was always in the game plan no matter what.
It became an effort to cut suppliers out of what they are due and employees out of what they have earned. It won’t pay the stringers for their months of hard work, work the company now says it must continue receiving if it is to become a new entity.
Chapter 11 allows the company the room to do just what it is doing now, dragging employees around by their necks so the eventual auction block will have few people on it, just a logo and maybe a few at the top of the executive office pile.
It has been an absolute pleasure working with you. And I ask that you remember your training in the years to come so the true story of UPI will be told.
It is one of those who help UPI and those who helped themselves to UPI, the nudge-nudge, wink-wink types who looted the place for their own ends, giving themselves hefty salaries to begin with and then adding bonuses to the amount, along with golden parachutes that equal the salaries of any five us battling to pay our bills, send kids to school, keep our taxes current and remain honest citizens in an increasingly dishonest world.
TELL THE TALE. Don’t let it die even if UPI does, as it well might. Be as you have always been, the best in the business, able to beat grandma or anyone else with both hands tied behind your back.
Some of the truth is already coming to roost within the close-knit journalistic community. For those without subscriptions, check your local library or a friend for the September 14 copy of Editor and Publisher. It’s there for anyone to see, right on page 9.
Thank you for years of friendship. It has been my honor to be associated with you.
To quote my Irish ancestors, red skelton and the frugal gourmet: luck with rainbows, may god bless, I bid you peace.
Graham-hxf (Chicago financial)

Unipressers
Eye have started this msg four or five times. Wld much rather write four or five 700-word skedders than a simple goodbye.
Tdy is my last day at UPI. Fortunately, eye am leaving under my own steam.
Trying to put these words together as I struggle with strong feelings of sadness and anger is difficult.
Eye am going to miss working daily with a fine group of journalists as we beat the other guys time and time again. Will miss your senses of humor, still intact despite great hardships. And I will miss the opportunity to tell people, “I work for UPI.”
Eye was lucky to work under business ed roz liston, who really knows her stuff and is one of the kindest people around. Plus her nxf (New York Financial) staff was great to work with — always helpful, professional and upbeat.
Thnx also to steve whitworth in x (St. Louis), my surrogate buro chief, for answering my questions, answering fones when eye was gone, and being my buddy. And to john hendel-kps (Kansas City Sports), my coworker and friend frm early days in journalism.
Eye am proud to have been a part of the UPI tradition, even though it has been troubled in recent years.
In the past week, eye have debated how far to go in expressing my feelings in this message. Decided there is no point in being dishonest now.
Like all of you, eye am enraged at the events of the past year. Those who spoke in lofty manner of helping our ship find a safe port instead ran us aground onto a rocky, barren island. Then they cannibalised us.
It is reprehensible. It is wrong. And they have gotten away with it. But, dear Unipressers, rest assured that you will receive justice some day, some way. Perhaps not in a court of law. Perhaps it won’t be economic justice. But have faith that right eventually will prevail.
My hope for all of you is that you find the respect and bigger paychecks that you deserve. 73s
Wallace-kp

Unipressers
like many otrs recently, eye never thot eye wud have to send this message. But tdy is my last day with UPI, after nearly 13 yrs. Eye don’t want to leave because eye love the good things UPI has been in my career. But financial realities and a nagging ulcer require a change. Eye am proud to have been a Unipresser and eye’m thankful for the great ppl eye have worked with and the great stories eye have covered. Eye wish you all the best in the future, and hope you will keep in touch. Eye’ll be reachable thru my home.
Chrs
Schlangenstien-hs-ex-sl-ne-da (Houston, Shreveport, New Orleans, Dallas)

Unipressers
After 13 years at UPI, I’ve come to the end of the line. It’s been a long, strange trip since I walked into the Pittsburgh bureau on 1978, with its walls of chattering printout machines and teletype operators playing all-night poker in the backroom. The last year has been a tough one, but I refuse to let the sad antics of the current management beasties blot out the good memories—the camaraderie, the never-say-die spirit and the sheer underdog pleasure of beating that great grey overdog, the ap. It’s become harder and harder to win the competitive game, but those other, more important qualities have persevered even in the hardest times. I’m proud to have worked with you all. It’s been fun.
Lobsenz-wa

all
today ends another longstanding tradition, albeit a minor one. After more than 60 years of combined service, a Zverina will no longer be part of UPI. My father Ivan retired in May 1990 after 45 years, and is enjoying his retirement immensely.
I, on the other hand, have another 30 years of work to go before I can slack off. So, after 15 years with UPI — seven of them spent as its automotive writer after starting in NX (New York) financial — I am resigning from UPI to grab something else that will allow me to continue to do the work I love.
This will be just another goodbye message when the day is done. But most of these farewells have had one common thread: these people loved their jobs here, and did not want to leave.
This could not be more true for me, and those of you who know me know I had one of the best jobs in the house. But watching this company crumble at the hands of higher-ups has been very painful, and some of the latest proposals set forth by the company to the WSG (Wire Service Guild) are downright insulting, to put it nicely. (I also leave as a WSG shop steward).
Apparently, covering the nation’s largest industry and a leading economic indicator does not seem to warrant a full-time position anymore. If that is true, it would be another tragic mistake that could possibly cost some remaining clients, especially here in the motor city state.
To all of you who have to or want to ride it out, the very best of luck. And may the good guys win for a change. Chrs
Zverina-ducars (nxf) (Detroit, New York Financial)

Capps-wa
(rocknroll)
(to the tune of great balls of fire)
we got no clients and we got no pay
the wire’s weak in ev-er-y way
the system’s slow
my life’s on hold
good-ness gra-cioius
filing the wire!
Chrsz et 73s
Rosenbush-nxf

Rosenbush-nxf
(rocknroll—reprise)
(to the blues)
woke up this morning, heading for the tube
got one mo’ book review, that’s wa-ay overdue
but ever’body else…is bustin’ their’s too
cuz that’s the way it is,
with the everlovin’
u-p-i BUH-luesssss!
Chiz et 73s backatcha
Capps-nv (Nashville)

Unipressers
Today’s the day I must depart
Just a short time since my start
When I came here with wide-eyed wonder
Hoping I would not choke or plunder
In my dream that went awry
To be a part of UPI
But I am luckier today
For having even this short stay
With people who love the work they do
Who respect themselves and others too
Thank you for this chance to learn
I hope UPI will never adjourn
Bye. eve tahmincioglu (it isn’t that difficult (to pronounce)!)
Eve-nxf

Unipressers
Oh, hell. My turn after all these years. I hope whoever’s left wins the lottery. I’m going to walk down to the little beer joint I own now and drink to all of you and everyone I knew at this job. I may not sober up for a year.
Happy trails
Haines-al (San Antonio)

Unipressers
Lo (for the last time). I’ve read so many of these messages, that I don’t know what to say. You’re the best damn people one could ever work with, you don’t deserve what’s happening.
It’s been a great 21 ½ years on the best job a person could ever have. May god bless and watch over all of you. Chrs
Usiak-bf (Buffalo)

Unipressers
Today is my last day with UPI. I don’t want to leave, but the company is challenging my contractual seniority rights to a news job. It has been a pleasure to work with you over the almost 18 years that I have been with UPI. I also have had the pleasure to meet many of you in my travels as a wire service guild officer. I wish you all the best. May god bless us all.
(chuck) moody-ps (Pittsburgh)

Unipressers
one month short of nine years, I’m not even working on my last official day. I went to Rhode Island Friday for a funeral and ended up in the hospital with stomach problems. So, for all those remaining, good luck … and get another job. Regards. McNally-hx (Chicago), late of UPI.

Unipressers
It’s been a long time coming, but tonight I log out for the last time after nearly nine years … some happy, some sad. I could tell you all about my bitter-sweet departure … how I, too, have been chased out by the grim one … how UPI has treated me so bad or so good … how I’ve worked with the best damn journalists … but that’s all been said by fellow Unipressers who’ve departed this life before me. It’s too late to be remorseful and life is too short to wallow in regrets. I guess I needed this kick in the pants to get on with my life. And I leave here with high hopes and a renewed sense of purpose. To the few and the proud I leave behind, keep your chin up and your chest out. There is life after UPI. Best of luck. Carrigan-phx

Unipressers
Parting really is a sweet sorrow — sad to be leaving the colleagues with whom I’ve worked, those who are my friends and those I don’t know but whose professionalism I respect and whose spirit I admire.
The problem with UPI has never been its news people nor the product they produced. We have been UPI’s assets and those assets have been squandered. That’s the sad part. On the other hand…
After 24 years with UPI (that amounts to 48 weeks earned but uncollected severance pay, but, hey, who’s counting?), there is that little voice that says, “free, free, free at last…”
For those who come after me, and management has admitted there’s another not-so-little list, the good news is that there is life after UPI and it is good.
Chrs, or as we used to say, 73s. hanauer-nxe (New York Enterprise)

Unipressers
There is a sign on the UPI door here Orval Jackson put up. It says, “what a beautiful day, watch some bastard louse it up.” Says it all.
Wish my good bye msg was as eloquent as Joe Mahoney’s or as brief as don dughi’s, but alas, it won’t be.
The bottom line is I’m toast. Thanks to all of you left out there who helped me along the way. Special thanks to my mentors Jim Dever and Larry Desantis. Thx to ray foli who bought my wife a drink at the Kentucky derby many years ago. I’ll remember those nice touches.
We’ll all survive this debacle.
Cosgrove-tpp (Tampa photos)

Unipressers
Last year I considered myself one of the fortunate ones that survived the cuts. This year I think myself one of the lucky ones that got let go. Good luck to all of us who’re going on to better things and my condolences to those who continue to plod on for all those great news radio clients in Guadalajara and Timbuktu. I am grateful to have been allowed to represent some of you for the union and I only wish that the company’s mismanagement had shown more grace and not given himself a golden parachute while depriving others of the most minimal of safety nets.
Chrs. Rosenberger-nx

Unipressers
I came to UPI two weeks past my 21st birthday filled with the romantic vision that I could help to provide a valued service for journalism, and for many years I assumed I would continue to do so for the rest of my working days. Over the past year, I adjusted that goal to simply hoping I would be allowed to go down with the ship I loved.
That wish was denied, and so my good friends, I bid you all adieu and good luck.
I leave here poor financially but enriched otherwise. I have learned much about our craft at the feet of many artists and masters; I have experienced the rush and camaraderie of working disasters and major team events, and I have made friends I cherish.
I also have learned some tough lessons about corporate loyalty and economics. In no longer believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy.
But I still believe in the basic goodness and indominatability of the colleagues I leave behind. For that I am eternally grateful.
Pohla-pss (Pittsburgh sports)

Unipressers
I had the best job on earth and the best years of my life here. Well, the later ones were a little rough but still no regret. So long and best of luck to all
Chrs. Hai do-cxp-ktp (Albany state capitol bureau, Albany pictures)

Unipressers
Today is my last day as a Unipresser, a title that’s proudly been mine for almost 20 years and has been in the family well over half a century. I became a Unipresser despite having been raised in a UPI family, something that probably gave rise to the rumors about me being a slow learner.
In fact, today is the end of four generations of family involvement in the news business. I have accepted an unsolicited offer to be a speechwriter for Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.
In keeping with my habit of writing long, this is longer than I’d expected it to be. (desk, cut from the bottom).
I was just a kid working in the southern division (best damn place to break on in the world) when I got my first dose of news reality. The phone rang and a raspy voice bellowed: “this is Warner in Atlanta. Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
From charlotte it was on to Raleigh and then home to Washington for the deep overnight and day desk. In 1984 I went up to capitol hill to take the defense beat. There was a stint in the stinking desert (ah, Dharan is lovely this time of year). After dodging efforts to have me put a $6,000 hotel bill on a personal credit card as the corporate alarm bells were ringing, it was back home to add the Pentagon to the growing list of responsibilities.
I’ve covered about everything one can cover — plane crashes, presidents, campaigns and conventions, wars, summits and all-nighters in the Senate listening to whiny politicians gnawing on their pork bones.
In between came such things as:
--waking up in –40 temperatures in the arctic to see the northern lights circling the horizon and ending a 120-degree day in Saudi Arabia by lounging on Persian carpets, eating off a platter of roast lamb and having incense wafted into my face by bedoins.
--coining or adopting the phrases: “shit for brains,” “three grafs of cosmic goo followed by a lead,” ”I’m so confused,” “the world’s largest financially and … bankrupt wire service,” and, “if news breaks, fix it.”
--the pure adrenalin high of whupping the competition while working solo on the Desert One disaster and taking Dean Reynolds’ breathless dictation on the Reagan assassination attempt.
I have worked with the best journalists in the world. I’d list everyone, but for sure I’d commit the sin of omission. But in addition to the obvious parental influence (Eliot’s father, Bernie, worked UPI for decades) on my career, there is one person I must acknowledge.
The Chief — Steve Gerstel. He slipped me beers after the office softball games, encouraged me as I fell into the business, helped me get to Washington and let me come to the Hill, his private domain. And he taught me, (but not to write long) Jefe, I promise to check in at 5p every Friday for my GAO reports.
Back in high school I had an English teacher who returned papers in the order of the grade, highest to lowest. One day mine was last and he said: “and now we come to you, Mr. Brenner. If you had to write for a living, as your parents do, you’d starve to death.”
It never got that bad and it’s sure been fun.
The current and future state of UPI, how it got here and where it’s going, are not topics for this note. I observe only that for years I thought it would be hard to quit. I’m sad to say it wasn’t. The painful part is leaving the people.
It’s been a great ride. Thanks for letting me come along, but I think I’ll get off here and sign up for the Downhold Club.
Eliot Brenner-WA
11-22-91

Unipressers
It is with great sadness that after 11 years with UPI, I announce my resignation. Bob Goldner’s dismissal yesterday has made my continuing association with the company untenable. Bob and I had embarked upon an attempt to facilitate a management buyout of UPI and various parties had expressed interest in backing us. We sincerely believed this to be the only means to save the company. As all of you are painfully aware, bad management is systematically destroying and dismembering this company. What we did was very simple. We looked at what we did best, where we could do better, what nobody else was doing, and made a firm commitment to eliminate the rest. We identified markets and areas that had previously been ignored and we came up with a plan that ensured a profitable UPI in the year 1993, with appropriate levels of capital to revamp our communications infrastructure and marketing effort. Based on our negotiations with a number of potential investors, we felt confident that within a matter of weeks, we could have secured the necessary capital to take over the company.
As a result of Bob’s dismissal, I can no longer in good conscience work toward this end within UPI but shall with all means and personal resources at my disposal continue to work outside the company to secure a new ownership and management for UPI. I believe this is the only way the company can ever survive. I have 11 years invested in the company. I have no choice but to give it my best shot, even now.
If we succeed, I look forward to working with all of you again, because that has been one of the greatest joys of being part of UPI.
Regards
Jack reed
11-28-91

Then there was the man who had a beautiful name who wrote witty 15-second novels under the equally delightful pseudonym — Helmut del Lago. Royal Brightbill had regaled us with his inventions over the years and they became collectors’ items. But late in 1991, Brightbill passed along Helmut’s farewell.

Buos
Fans, connoisseurs of microblast literature (the inter-galactic, funky 90s term for the 15-second novel) and fellow masochists (those of you in the latest wave of lay-offs and especially those of you who must continue to battle the Gang of Four — Deceit, Treachery, Ingratitude and Avarice). It is hard to be funny at a time like this. But, in view of yesterday’s bankruptcy court action, this little parable, my last offering to you on this wire, seems appropriate.
The Pig
A reporter invited to a roast pig dinner on a hog farm was amazed to see the main course had three wooden legs. He asked the farmer about it.
“Oh, that was the best pig I ever had,” the farmer said. “A few years back, my house caught fire while I slept. He ran through the flames to wake me.”
“Is that how he lost his legs?”
“And just a couple of months ago, I fell in an alligator-filled bayou. He jumped in and pulled me out.”
“But what about the legs?”
“My friend, a pig that valuable you just don’t eat all at once.”
Somewhere on Wall Street a dog was barking.
Which is a kinder and gentler way of saying:
The rape of UPI has ended. The necrophilia has begun.
Helmut del Lago
9-24-91

Then it was Brightbill’s turn and his farewell will remain a classic.
Unipressers
Helmut del lago wrote his last msg last week. On his behalf, I thank you for encouraging his “art.” I am not skilled as he in concise expression, but please bear out an old Unipresser’s reminisces.
Twenty-two years ago, fresh journalism degree in hand, I took off my cap and gown and flew the same day to my first assignment with UPI in Raleigh, N.C. It has been a fast, thoroughly exhilarating ride — except for the past few years, which, in some respects, has been like watching my mother die, painfully, of cancer.
I could not believe the RA (Raleigh) office when I arrived that first day. It looked like something out of a 1930s movie. Stacks of newspapers everywhere, rumpled paper on the floor, cluttered, beat up desks supporting even more beat up typewriters. Loud, clacking black machines streaming mounds of perforated tape. Telephones constantly ringing. The space was pitiably small.
My first day on the job, there was a prison break. A guard was killed. Richard Hatch, the state editor, told me to work the phones and develop a profile on the guard. I started taking notes in longhand. He told me to use a typewriter or I never would survive.
The next day I saw my story in print. And Hatch had written me a note to the effect that I was on my way “to becoming a top-notch Unipresser.” It was the first time the term Unipresser had been applied to me, and you could have peeled me off the ceiling.
Within a week I was on the overnight by myself and could not believe the responsibility thrust on me. Nothing to it. Just rewrote everything that had been done all day, monitor the TV stations and pickup anything we missed, get the first edition of the morning paper and pick up wot we missed. Oh, yeah, and don’t forget the broadcast briefs packages that seemed to come up almost every hour on the half hour. Field the stringer calls etc etc. I quickly understood what Walter Cronkite meant when he said the toughest job he ever had was the Kansas City overnight of United Press. It would take me two hours past scheduled quitting time to get the work done. I stayed and did it, and did not put in for overtime, because I didn’t want Hatch to think I couldn’t handle it.
About seven weeks after I started, there came one night, the insistent bells of the first flash I ever heard. The message said: “The Eagle has landed.” Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had arrived safely on the moon.
I went home with headaches every night, and lay awake for what seemed like hours, terrified that I might have screwed up. I made my first move a year later, to a two-man bureau in Charlotte. A year later after that I became CT bureau manager because the manager at the time, John Shalko, had quit to go home to Rhode Island for one of those “cushy pr jobs” with the phone co.
The first seven years of my career, our young family moved six times. But it was because it was what I wanted to do, and UPI gave me the chance. I have had the opportunity to work with the masters — Gregory Jensen, Bob Musel, Joe Grigg, Al Webb, Peggy Polk, Leon Daniel, Lou Carr, Arnie Sawislak stand out in my mind. I’ll include Dick Growald in there. If I did anything right it was because of the influence of people like that.
Since Charlotte, I have worked in New York, Brussels, Athens, the Middle East, London, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, New Orleans again, San Francisco, Baton Rouge again, Shreveport, New Orleans and Baton Rouge again. I was part of the Middle East coverage team in the Yom Kippur war in 1973, covered an opening of parliament, a trial at the Old Bailey, a coup in Greece, a terrorist hijacking, hurricanes, an electrocution, political races, speeches, trials, state government and Mardi Gras ad nauseum. And sports of all sorts. But my favorites were always the three-legged chicken stories — those innocuous features that made people smile — the funeral home with the drive-up window, the dog intelligence test, the hookers’ masquerade ball.
I even did a stretch as a regional executive — and quit twice in a six-month period. When I started my third tour, I vowed this time UPI would divorce me before I divorced it. The time has come.
All of us have had a love-hate relationship with UPI because it has been our family. And just like a family, we have fought with each other, loved each other, cried with each other and lifted each other up. We were an unbeatable team when challenged from the outside. It only has been the attacks on us from within, by people who had no concept of the tradition and never had the UPI heart that has brought the company to the point it is today.
About 84 years ago, E.W. Scripps told the AP he wanted to buy its wire for his newspaper. The AP refused because there already was an AP “member” in the same town, and they had this little exclusivity clause in their contracts that allowed one newspaper per town to monopolize wire news. As we all know, Scripps’ in-your-face response was to start United Press, which eventually became United Press International. Among its many credits is the break-up of the international news cartel that existed prior to World War II.
That in-your-face tradition led to the best wire service ever, with a loose system that encouraged every Unipresser to give full expression to his individuality and reach his full potential, rather than press him into a bland mold. Every one of you is an inheritor and bearer of that tradition, a tradition that says fight the odds. Never quit. Never quit. That tradition never can be killed by changing times or jobs, recession or corporate chicanery.
I leave with no regrets and a treasure chest of memories, but also with some sadness at what UPI has been reduced to. My warmest wishes to my colleagues who leave today, and especially to those on whose shoulders falls the duty to defend the tradition against unprecedented assault.
73
brightbill-bg

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