Struggling News Service Draws Back From The Cosmos

Two of the best writers on space are Robert Zimmerman and Irene Mona Klotz, both of whom write for United Press International, UPI.

The #2 press agency has been struggling for some time, as newspapers, UPI's prime market, face declining circulation and the resulting decline in ad revenue. The circulation problem may have many causes, including the growth of internet news and targeted cable news, the emergence of specialist news sites (like Aero-News), and the tarnishing of the media escutcheon by recent scandals.

Public -- and advertiser -- trust in the newspaper industry has not been helped by some newspapers' "solution" to the circulation problem, which was to defraud their advertisers by simply pencil-whipping the numbers. But whatever the reason, papers have less money, and they spend less of it with UPI. So UPI has dropped space, specifically its regular space columns: "Space Watch" by Zimmerman and "Space Race II" by Klotz.

UPI, privately held by News World Communications (NWC) which in turn is owned by the controversial Unification Church, does not report financial information but is believed by industry insiders to be a money-losing operation, as is the Washington Times newspaper of similar ownership. In 2004, NWC pulled the plug on several smaller ventures including a Spanish-language paper and two newsmagazines; at the time NWC indicated that saving money was a primary reason.

Zimmerman told Dr. David Livingstone on The Space Show that UPI couldn't make money on space, and instead wanted to replace the service's two accomplished space writers with columns on "consumer health" and "broadband." (If you are a cynic, you will interpret that as "columns that will shill for pharmaceutical companies" and "columns that will shill for the cellular/phone/internet cartel," all intended to pump advertising from those groups. But we are not cynics here).

UPI's Science Editor Phil Berardelli (pictured, right) confirmed for Aero-News that UPI has had to terminate aerospace coverage. He took pains to let us know that the cause was economic and doesn't reflect on the writers: "The decision to drop our aerospace coverage at this time was based on several factors, all having to do with current editorial costs and potential markets, but not at all having to do with the quality of the columns by Irene Klotz and Robert Zimmerman, both of whom I know personally and respect greatly."

He also told us about a casualty we had overlooked: "...the decision ended my own astronomy column, 'In the Stars,' which was a labor of love."

Zimmerman's 'Genesis,' the story of the groundbreaking Apollo 8 mission, was a personal favorite of mine, and several of us at Aero-News are big fans of Klotz's writing [E-I-C Note: With good reason!]. She was Dr. Peter Diamandis's choice to work with him on 'X-Prize: Inside the New Race to Space.' Both of them are on top of everything to do with commercial space, and capable writers too: we're sure that they'll both land on their feet.

In the meantime, UPI's Phil Berardelli will be watching the numbers. "I hope that this situation is temporary and that we will be able to resume our coverage in the near future," the editor told us. We hope so too.

To the general public, who depend on newspapers that depend on wire services for content, this is going to mean less information about the ongoing space revolution. We're sure to still be seeing these bylines; we're just going to have to look a little harder for them.

FMI: www.about.upi.com