Inter Press cuts support for N. American outlet p. 17

By: George Garrigues

Cuts threaten U.S. arm of nonprofit news agency
serving ethnic and foreign-language papers sp.

FINANCIAL PROBLEMS AT Inter Press Service are threatening the future of its Global Information Network distribution wing.
The difficulty bodes ill for GIN's subscribers: 28 English-language and 15 Spanish-language publications or broadcasting outlets, and databases such as Nexis, Comtex and Information Access.
The papers range from the black-oriented City Sun of New York to Illyria (the Balkans) and the Turkish Times, as well as El Mundo, El Tiempo and La Voz Hispana, which take the Spanish-language service.
Global Information Network is subsidized by Inter Press Service, but financial belt tightening by IPS has cut support from $59,000 in 1993, or 42% of the GIN budget, to $34,000 in 1994.
The funding cut, executive director Lisa Vives said, is "the most serious problem facing Global today, and one that threatens the future of the agency."
In 1993, GIN's revenues were $138,346, and its expenses were $124,572, for a surplus of $13,744. Accounts payable and accrued expenses brought the net assets at the end of the year to $8,735.
Vives hopes that revenue from additional clients and grants from funding organizations will enable GIN, which was founded 25 years ago as InterLink Service, to improve services to its mostly minority and ethnic-interest clients in the United States and Canada. She is looking for expert, "preferably cheap" assistance in raising funds.
The nonprofit corporation has reorganized recently and named a new board directors.
Vives, at GIN for the past four years, was a writer/editor for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, an editor for the Wire Service Guild of New York and managing editor for Local 560 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters after having reported for six years for the Jersey Journal, Jersey City, N.J.
Floating groups of unpaid college interns and volunteers edit and rewrite stories from IPS headquarters in Amsterdam and cover news in the New York area, from the nation's first strike at a Chinese restaurant, to the recent Gay Games, to speeches by justices of the Latvian and Russian supreme courts.
Between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. in its basement office across First Avenue from the United Nations, the small staff processes 40 to 50 stories a day. A typical day included about 16 from Africa, three from Asia and the Middle East, 10 from Latin America and the Caribbean, seven from Europe and the remainder on worldwide topics, including communications, the environment, disarmament and population.
Most stories are sent out by modem or fax, but a new wrinkle is an electronic bulletin board offering stories in English from "libraries" organized by geographical locations or subjects, including human rights, religion, industry, media, trade or politics.
A trial run is available at no charge. A one-time setup fee of $25 entitles the user to a daily headline sheet and access to one library of news headlines and stories. Each story costs $5 to download.