DALLAS, March 20, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- (WITH PHOTO) Travis M. Hughs, a long-time media executive with United Press International, Reuters and a co-founder of Wieck Photo DataBase, Inc., died Monday of complications from a lengthy battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, his family said. He was 64.
Hughs was Chairman and CEO of Wieck Photo DataBase, Inc., a firm he co-founded with James F. Wieck 10 years ago. The company recently began doing business as Wieck Media Services to reflect its expanded operations.
"I consider myself incredibly lucky to have had Travis as a business partner and, more importantly, as a friend," Wieck said "He was straight-to-the-point but flexible as a business partner. He was generous and unequivocal as a friend. And he had the quickest mind of anybody I've ever met."
Before starting the media services company, Hughs spent 23 years as an executive with UPI, where, in the 1970s, he helped guide the news industry into the computer age and lead the wire service's development of high-speed news delivery. He also was a national media sales executive with Reuters.
During the early 1970s, as UPI began the transition to its Information Storage and Retrieval (IS&R) system, Hughs introduced a plan to deliver news to clients using sophisticated high-speed equipment.
The "DataNews" service he envisioned would use 1,200-word-per-minute printers and electronic selectors that would allow UPI to tailor news reports to newspapers. At the time, news still was being delivered at various teletype speeds ranging from 60 to 75 words per minute.
Others at UPI, including communications managers, wanted to develop a different system. But Hughs got the backing of editorial managers and DataNews was introduced in 1975.
CustomNews, a service developed for broadcasters, followed DataNews. The two high-speed services became UPI's main news delivery systems for the next two decades as modem and printer speeds reached nearly 10,000 words per minute.
"Travis saw the benefits of high-speed delivery of UPI's news services early on," said Paul Eberhart, a former managing editor for the wire service. "DataNews was his baby and he did a hell of a job."
After the IS&R and DataNews projects were completed, Hughs was named vice president and manager of UPI's Southwest Division and moved to Dallas in 1980.
Hughs left UPI to join Reuters in 1985, where he was a national sales executive. Hughs and Wieck, who had met at UPI, formed their business partnership in 1990. Wieck left UPI that fall and, with Marge Boatright, another former UPI executive, the partnership began planning for an image database to distribute news images sold on an a la carte basis.
"The database business was Travis' brainchild and he wanted a real name behind it," Wieck said. "And right after he said that, he looked at me and said, 'Let's put your name on it. They may not be able to spell it, but it'll stand out.'
"I think that says it all about Travis," Wieck added. "His ego never got in the way of anything he did. He decided Wieck-pronounced like a candle wick-would be more distinctive than Hughs and so he put my name on the company stationery instead of his own."
The New York Times News Service signed on as their first client and the database began delivering photos from The New York Times in May 1991. The partnership was dissolved and Wieck Photo DataBase, Inc. was formed in 1992 with Hughs serving as chairman and Wieck as president.
Under Hughs' leadership, Wieck grew from a small firm distributing photos into a leading media services company that now distributes many types of media and multi-media files and also designs and maintains databases and media Web sites for some of the world's largest corporations.
Among its other clients are Agence France-Presse, American Honda Motor Co., Inc., Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Canon USA, The Coca-Cola Co., DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co., General Motors, Kyodo News Service, The New York Times Syndicate and News Services, The New York Times Newspaper Group, Toyota Corporate Services of North America and Visteon.
"Throughout his career, Travis had the ability to identify the needs of the media and to create the services to fill those needs," Boatright said. "His concept of the photo database to serve the wire services, newspaper groups and corporate needs was the genesis of Wieck Media Services."
Hughs began his news career as a reporter in Port Lavaca, Texas, but soon joined the Miami (OK) News-Record. He began his UPI career in 1961 as Tulsa bureau manager. In 1966, he transferred to Houston to serve as a regional executive in charge of sales for south Texas.
Hughs' commitment to selling UPI's service was legendary. When he first arrived in Houston, the wire service had contracts with one newspaper, one television station and four radio stations. By the time he left for New York in 1970, he had contracts with both of Houston's newspapers, all six television stations and 23 of the city's 24 radio stations.
Hughs also helped the Houston bureau cover news and sporting events, including the astronauts and their families and the Apollo moon missions, the University of Houston and UCLA basketball rivalries, and several of Muhammad Ali's title fights.
He was born in Waco, but grew up in Austin and Houston, and graduated from the Texas Military Institute in San Antonio. Following a four-year stint in the Navy, where he did carrier duty, he studied journalism at the University of Houston.
Hughs is survived by his wife, Linda; two daughters, Mona and Jennifer; two sons, Travis III and Anthony and his family, and a brother, Joe and his family. He was predeceased by his first wife, Toni, and his second wife, Marsha.
To preview a photo of Hughs, and for download instructions, click on http://www.wieck.com/public/WIK2001030161700.
PHOTO NOTE: This photo is available from Wieck Photo Database at 972/392-0888 or www.wieckphoto.com, or at PrimeZone's Website, www.primezone.com.