Outlet profile

UPI

U.S. center (wire service; parent company is conservative-aligned)

Owned byNews World Communications, Inc., a media company founded by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon; the same parent company owns The Washington Times

FundingWire-service subscription and content-licensing fees from publishers and news organizations; website advertising revenue; privately owned with no government subsidy

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

United Press (UP) was founded in 1907 by newspaper publisher E.W. Scripps to compete with the Associated Press monopoly on wire news. In 1958, UP merged with Hearst's International News Service to form United Press International. For decades UPI rivaled the AP as a global wire service, renowned for reporters such as Helen Thomas, who served as its chief White House correspondent for 57 years. Beginning in 1982, UPI entered a prolonged financial crisis marked by multiple bankruptcy filings and a rapid succession of ownership changes — passing through Media News Corporation, private investors, Infotech, and Saudi-backed Middle East Broadcasting Centre. In 2000, News World Communications — a media company founded by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon and best known for owning the conservative Washington Times — purchased UPI, prompting Helen Thomas's resignation after more than half a century at the wire service. Under its current ownership UPI operates primarily as a digital news and photo service, far smaller than in its mid-century heyday. Media-bias organizations including Media Bias/Fact Check, AllSides, and Ad Fontes Media consistently rate UPI's wire output as center or least biased with high factual reliability, though critics note that its parent company's ideological roots create a potential conflict with the outlet's stated editorial independence.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-23; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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