Outlet profile

United Press International

U.S. center (wire service); Unification Church-affiliated owner

Owned byNews World Communications, a media company founded by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon in 1976. It bought UPI in 2000. The same company has owned The Washington Times (it sold that paper in 2025) and owns Segye Ilbo (South Korea) and Sekai Nippo (Japan). Public sources I found do not say how UPI's ownership has been structured in recent years.

FundingMainly revenue from selling news, photos and data to media and commercial subscribers, plus website advertising. The parent company has historically covered financial shortfalls. UPI does not publish detailed financials, so the exact mix is not publicly documented.

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

UPI was formed in 1907 when E.W. Scripps merged three regional news agencies. It became a major global rival to the Associated Press and peaked in the 1950s with thousands of newspaper and broadcast clients. Scripps sold it in 1982, and it then went through several owners and bankruptcy filings as its client base shrank. Middle Eastern-linked owners held it in the 1990s. In 2000, News World Communications, founded by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon, bought it. Longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas resigned after 57 years with UPI over the sale, though then-CEO Arnaud de Borchgrave said the new owners had promised editorial independence. UPI is now a much smaller operation, publishing mostly brief news, science, entertainment and security items with limited original reporting and little opinion. Media-bias raters generally describe its coverage as balanced and factually reliable. Critics have noted the owner's religious and political ties, and the Washington Times, a sister outlet under the same owner, is more openly conservative.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-26; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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