WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- United Press International announced Wednesday that Dr. Chung Hwan Kwak has been named chairman, chief executive officer and president of the 95-year-old news service.
Kwak's appointment by the UPI board of directors, effective Thursday, follows the resignation of Douglas D.M. Joo, who is leaving UPI but will remain as president of News World Communications Inc., the parent corporation of UPI, The Washington Times, Insight, the World and I magazine, Tiempos del Mundo and several other publications.
Kwak was the founding president of the Korean daily newspaper, Segye Ilbo. Kwak has published numerous articles and books. He holds advanced degrees in law, western philosophy and theology and has lectured throughout the world.
Kwak also is chairman of the University of Bridgeport, Conn. and Sun Moon University in Seoul, South Korea. He chairs a number of non-profit and international charitable organizations, including the Inter Religious and International Federation for World Peace, the Professors World Peace Academy, the International Cultural Foundation, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, and the World Culture and Sports Festival among others.
Kwak will oversee a news service that has expanded under News World ownership.
"In the past two years, UPI has doubled its output of daily stories to approximately 250. We've also doubled the number of editors and reporters and reconstructed a worldwide network of stringers and correspondents," said Editor in Chief John O'Sullivan. "But above all our reporters must follow UPI's prime directive: to write news reports that are timely, accurate and give the reader all that is necessary to understand their significance."
UPI has expanded the licensing of its own content to include the text and photo services of its corporate affiliates, including The Washington Times, and several other newspapers and magazines published in English, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese and Korean.
Along with this combined daily output, UPI has initiated consolidation of the combined text and photo archives of its News World publishing affiliates around the world.
UPI also is expanding into the field of editorial content management with the development and future licensing of its proprietary internet-based Bernini Editorial System, allowing correspondents from anywhere in the world to file stories directly into the editor's desk in any other part of the world. The company also is adding state-of-the-art indexing for fast, multi-language searches.
News World acquired UPI in 2000 from a group of Saudi investors. News World was founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church.
