Here's an Aug. 24, 1990, message from UPI executive Pieter VanBennekom concerning yet another reorganization of the company:
199m ccccx to all upi staffers from vanbennekom updating on several key topics: -- upi management changes: this week i met at length with upi's new regional editorial executives, bill morrissey (northeast); david mould (south); bob kieckhefer (midwest); and eric kramer (west). these executives hod authority unprecedented in upi's 83 years for designing the newly differentiated editorial product in their regions; for achieving the region's profit goals; for managing core editorial operations in their regions; and directing sales and customer service efforts at the local level. as never before, these regional editors have been afforded financial control of the regional upi businessess they lead, and they have broad responsibility for satisfying upi's objectives. with the exception of the national operations in washington and chicago, all bureau chiefs report to regional editors. the states comprising the four regions are: northeast; maine, vt., n.j., conn., mass., r.i., n.y., n.j., pa., del., md., va., w.va., and d.c. south: fla., ga., miss., n.c., s.c., tenn., ala., la., okla., ark., and texas. midwest: mich., ohio, ind., ill., ky., wis., minn., n.d., s.d., neb., iowa, mo., and kansas. west: calif., alaska, hawaii, ore., wash., idaho, mont., wyo., colo., utah, nev., n.m., and ariz. we have carefully chosen a team of people who have impeccable journalistic credentials and who share our vision of an entrepreneurial news agency with an emphasis on enterprise writing and who know how to apply that principle to our mainstay, the state and regional news services. kieck, as we all know him, and david, are upi veterans. so is morrissey, although with a background that includes service on the other side of several fences, and eric is the "new kid on the block." he comes to us from 10 years at the ap and thereafter his own or family publishing businesses. in some regions, deputy regional editors have been named. they are jim wieck (dallas) in the south, carolyn click (richmond), betsy ricci (boston) and skip martin (philadelphia) in the northeast and tobin beck (milwaukee) and tom burnett (cleveland) in the midwest. the regional editors will report to assistant managing editor for state and regional news steve geimann in washington. -- sales leadership has shifted: former upi senior vice president sales pat grotto is now responsible for parent company infotechnology's business development efforts. upi has split media and corporate sales functions, assigning media sales to newly appointed senior vice president-media david haymore, assisted by vice presidents john kady (newspapers), mike aulaubagh (broadcast) and victorial wakefield (government). haymore joined upi in 1984 and has done anything and everything for upi. this 31-year-old former all-state high school hocky player is a pleasure to work with and a thorough-going sales professional. -- we have in the past two months made clear that upi was never established as a contract labor pool. rather, upi exists to provide news media and other clients the best possible reporting and data. we are holding fast to this principle. in one recent case, our plans for expanded state reports called for reducing staff in one bureau, in order to enable us to introduce additional news material from other in-state sources. one media client threatened to cancel if we did not maintain our previous staffing level. we declined, and the client canceled the full service (though we are exploring providing them individual premium topics and services.) our service to upi clients is based on a single criterion: excellence in products and services . . . not body counts. we are committed to our present course, because only through this effort can we achieve the dramatic editorial differentiation we have set as our unalterable goal. -- response to the personal profile survey has been excellent. this questionnaire was mailed by upi human resources to all upi employees and will be used to establish a "talent bank" data base that will enable us to identify more readily employees' and key contributors' special language skills, work experience, etc. ccccqqe upi 08-24-90 05:35 pcd