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The International News Service (INS) was a U.S.-based
news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...
(newswire) founded by newspaper publisher
William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...
in 1909.Donald Liebenson, "Upi R.i.p."
''Chicago Tribune'', 4 May 2003, accessed 11 May 2011
The INS consistently ranked as the third-largest news agency in the U.S., trailing behind its major competitors, the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
and
United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...
. Despite notable achievements and considerable investments, the INS never managed to surpass its rivals. At its peak, the INS served 19 percent of American daily newspapers (1948).''Encyclopedia of Journalism''. (2009). United States: SAGE Publications, pp. 775-776. In May 1958 it merged with rival United Press to become
United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
.


History


Hearst News Service

The precursor to the International News Service was the
Hearst News Service Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
, which was established in 1904. In 1903, the Hearst publishing organization leased a telegraph line from San Francisco to New York, passing through Chicago, to facilitate its expanding newspaper business in these three cities and to share reporting. This service also provided news items to other newspapers, leading to the formation of the Hearst News Service.''Encyclopedia of Journalism''. (2009). United States: SAGE Publications, p. 775.


International News Service

In May 1909, the Hearst publishing organization established the American News Service (ANS), headquartered in New York. The American News Service was formed to sell Hearst's wire reports to outside morning papers in the United States. Curtis J. Mar was appointed the first president and general manager of the ANS, succeeded the same year by Richard A. Farrelly. The service was expanded to include foreign news reporting from August 1909. Schwarzlose, R. A. (1989). ''The Nation's Newsbrokers: The rush to institution, from 1865 to 1920'', Northwestern University Press, p. 229. Shortly after its establishment, the American News Service was split into two divisions to cater to morning and evening newspapers across the United States. In order to reflect its widened news field which now included reporting of the domestic and foreign news, the American News Service was renamed the International News Service (INS) in January 1910. The INS was responsible for providing overnight reports to morning newspapers seven days a week. At the same time, Hearst established the National News Association (NNA) to provide six day a week news report for evening newspapers. In 1911, the National News Association was dissolved: ultimately, the morning and evening services were integrated and operated under the INS banner. In 1916, E. Barry Faris joined the INS as a correspondent and news manager in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
Consequently, E. Barry Faris stayed with the INS for the next forty years and became one of the key figures in the organization: he served as an assistant to editorial managers Marlen E. Pew and George G. Shor. In 1927 E. Barry Faris was promoted to general news manager and in 1932 became the editor of the INS, a position he held until the INS and United Press were merged in 1958. Established two years after Hearst-competitor
E.W. Scripps Edward Willis Scripps (June 18, 1854 – March 12, 1926), was an American newspaper publisher. He and his sister Ellen Browning Scripps founded the E. W. Scripps Company, today a diversified media conglomerate, as well as the United Press new ...
combined three smaller syndicates under his control into
United Press Associations United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
, INS battled the other major newswires. It added a picture service, International News Photos, or INP. The Hearst
newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...
series ''
Hearst Metrotone News ''Hearst Metrotone News'' (renamed ''News of the Day'' in 1936) was a newsreel series that ran from 1914 to 1967 produced by the Hearst Corporation, founded by William Randolph Hearst. History Hearst produced silent newsreels under the titles ...
'' (1914–1967) was released as ''International Newsreel'' from January 1919 to July 1929. Universal Service, another Hearst-owned news agency, merged with International News Service in 1937.
The Press: Mouthpiece Merged
'' ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
,'' August 23, 1937
Always a distant third to its larger rivals the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
and the
United Press United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ...
, the INS was merged with UP on May 24, 1958, to become
UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
. New York City's all-news radio station, WINS, then under Hearst ownership, took its call letters from INS, as did the short-lived (1948–49),
DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in ...
nightly newscast, '' I.N.S. Telenews''.


Notable employees and contributors

Among those who worked for INS were future broadcasters
William Shirer William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist, war correspondent, and historian. His '' The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', a history of Nazi Germany, has been read by many and cited in schol ...
,
Edwin Newman Edwin Harold Newman (January 25, 1919 – August 13, 2010) was an American newscaster, journalist, and author. After beginning his career with the wire services and serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Newman worked in radio for CBS New ...
,
Bob Clark Benjamin Robert Clark (August 5, 1939 – April 4, 2007) was an American film director and screenwriter. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was responsible for some of the most successful films in Canadian film industry, Canadian film history such ...
,
Freeman Fulbright Freeman Fulbright (April 26, 1925 – June 6, 1978) was a reporter and public relations executive, notable for his coverage of Adlai Stevenson's 1952 presidential campaign for the International News Service. He was editor of ''Newsweek'' in the ...
, and Irving R. Levine, who in 1950 covered the outbreak of war in Korea for INS.
Marion Carpenter Marion A. Carpenter (March 6, 1920 – October 29, 2002), was the first woman national press photographer to cover Washington, D.C. and the White House, and to travel with a US President. In 1951, Carpenter returned to St. Paul, Minnesota, ...
, the first woman national press photographer to cover Washington, D.C., and the White House, and to travel with a US president, also had worked for the INS.The Associated Press (AP): "Remembering Marion Carpenter: Pioneer White House Photographer Dies," , retrieved November 25, 2002. The INS also counted among its ranks other famous journalists, including
Jack Lait Jack Lait (March 13, 1883 – April 1, 1954) was an American journalist, author and playwright. During a 50-year career he wrote prolifically and became renowned as one of the leading newspapermen of the first half of the 20th century. He is ...
,
Damon Runyon Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American journalist and short-story writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway theatre, Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Proh ...
,
Karl Henry von Wiegand Karl Henry von Wiegand (September 11, 1874 – June 7, 1961) was a German born American journalist and war correspondent. Von Wiegand became one of the longest-serving American journalists stationed in Berlin, Germany. Although Von Wiegand is m ...
, Otto D. Tolischus,
Dorothy Thompson Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany, in 1934, and was one of the few women news commentators broadc ...
,
Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker (January 31, 1898 – July 12, 1949) was an American journalist and author; winner of the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for Correspondence for his series of articles on the practical operation of the Five Year Plan in the Soviet ...
, Pierre J. Huss, Richard Tregaskis,
Max Jordan Max Arthur Jordan (later Father Placid Jordan) (April 21, 1895 - November 28, 1977) was a German-American foreign correspondent for the International News Service and pioneering radio journalist for the NBC network in Europe in the 1930s. Staatsa ...
.


''International News Service v. Associated Press''

During the early years of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Hearst's INS was barred from using Allied telegraph lines, because of reporting of British losses. INS made do by allegedly taking news stories off AP bulletin boards, rewriting them and selling them to other outlets. AP sued INS and the case reached the United States Supreme Court. The case was considered important in terms of distinguishing between upholding the
common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
rule of "no copyright in facts", and applying the common law doctrine of misappropriation through the
tort A tort is a civil wrong, other than breach of contract, that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with cri ...
of
unfair competition Anti-competitive practices are business or government practices that prevent or reduce competition in a market. Antitrust laws ensure businesses do not engage in competitive practices that harm other, usually smaller, businesses or consumers. ...
. In ''
International News Service v. Associated Press ''International News Service v. Associated Press'', 248 U.S. 215 (1918), also known as ''INS v. AP'' or simply the ''INS'' case, is a 1918 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court that enunciated the misappro ...
'' of 1918,
Justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...
Mahlon Pitney Mahlon R. Pitney IV (February 5, 1858 – December 9, 1924) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms from 1895 to 1899. He later served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supr ...
wrote for the majority in ruling that INS was infringing on AP's "lead-time protection", and defining it as an unfair business practice. Pitney narrowed the period for which the newly defined proprietary right would apply: this doctrine "postpones participation by complainant's competitor in the processes of distribution and reproduction of news that it has not gathered, and only to the extent necessary to prevent that competitor from reaping the fruits of complainant's efforts and expenditure." Justice
Louis D. Brandeis Louis may refer to: People * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer Other uses * Louis (coin), a French coin * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also * ...
wrote a minority opinion, objecting to the court's creating a new private property right.


INS Poll

Between 1952 and 1957, members of the International News Service conducted an annual college football poll, similar to those held by rivals at the Associated Press ( AP Poll) and United Press (
Coaches Poll In the United States, the Coaches Poll is a weekly ranking of the top 25 NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football, Division I college basketball, and Division I college baseball teams. The football version of the poll has ...
). Every week during the football season, a group of experts and writers issues a list of the top 10 teams of that week, culminating in a national champion awarded at the end of the season, before the bowl games. The poll ceased after INS merged with UP in 1958.


References


Further reading

*Harnett, Richard M. and Billy G. Ferguson, ''UNIPRESS: United Press International — Covering the 20th Century,'' Fulcrum Publishing, 2003. * Koenigsberg, M. (1941). ''King News: An Autobiography''. United States: F.A. Stokes Company.


External links

* (Report on
United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
/INS merger) {{Authority control News agencies based in the United States Organizations established in 1909 1909 establishments in the United States