Business Notes Press

In the last year that United Press International made money, Lyndon Johnson was in the White House and the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night was climbing the 1964 record charts. Last week brought more bad news for the second largest U.S. wire service, which emerged from bankruptcy proceedings last June when it was bought by Mexican Newspaper Publisher Mario Vazquez Rana. The New York Times revealed that on Dec. 31 it would cancel its basic contract with U.P.I. (The Times still wants to use the wire's photo service.) Estimated cost of the dropped service: close to $1 million a year. The paper apparently aims to bolster its New York Times News Service, one of U.P.I.'s competitors.

Newspaper executives have traditionally supported U.P.I. as the main source of competition for the Associated Press, the nation's No. 1 wire service. But a few more major customer defections could deal the final blow to the struggling runner-up.