A French Company That
Needs a Break
By
Polly Sprenger
The
Standard ©
January 03, 2000
While its competitors enjoy Internet
success, wire service Agence France-Presse is hamstrung by an
arcane law and its own staff.
Agence
France-Presse, one of the world's
leading wire services, is trying to move decisively into the
Internet age, but it keeps running into obstacles.
Now AFP is trying to change those bylaws,
but it faces a strike threat from its unionized reporters.
According to a company official, the staff objects to raising
money from private companies and worries that a commercial
interest could threaten the integrity of their reporting.
"They want to have a guarantee of
independence," says AFP spokeswoman Agnes Caradec.
"They were afraid that if there is one big owner they
won't have freedom."
The wire service hopes to win approval for
its plan sometime in 2000, Caradec adds, and will hold further
discussions on the private-investment issue in the interim.
"If we want to make developments, we are obliged to raise
money," she says.
Presented in September, the development plan
contained provisions to in-crease staff size and push the
agency further into Internet and multimedia efforts. In that
vein, AFP announced last week it had partnered with Nokia
(NOK)
in Europe to provide online news for cellular phones via the
Wireless Application Protocol.
But Eric Giuily, AFP's chairman, has
expressed concern that unless the wire service can step up the
pace of its technological developments, it will lose out to
more tech-savvy competitors. Both Reuters and Bloomberg, for
example, have made significant investments in their own
branded Web sites and are rapidly cementing partnerships that
will push their news onto as many sites as possible.
Giuily, who was brought on board in March to
revitalize the wire service, wants to increase its budget,
primarily to invest in technology – from 1.4 billion francs
($222 million) to 2 billion francs ($317 million) over the
next five years.
Although he would like to raise the money
through private investors, Giuily is prevented from doing so
by law. Giuily has presented a bill to the French National
Assembly to change the 1957 statute, which prohibits AFP from
creating partnerships with private companies; however, the
move provoked a strike threat by journalists in September.
In response, Giuily agreed to hold more
internal discussions and make a final decision on the plan in
December. But he missed that deadline and employees are still
unhappy.
Although AFP maintains several Web sites,
including a joint-venture financial news service with
England's Financial Times, it still lags behind competitors.
Giuily is determined to get his plan passed,
and Caradec asserts that employee opposition will not hold up
the development. Other aspects of the five-year plan will be
put into place, she says, and the agency's governing body will
continue to negotiate with the journalists.
Setting up a means to attract private
investment will be key for AFP to maintain its current status
as the No. 3 wire service after Reuters and the Associated
Press. Currently, 43 percent of its budget comes from
government coffers; the rest is from client news organizations
that use AFP's reporting. Neither of those sources of revenue
can support Giuily's desired budget increases.
But the union has proven that ideological
interests don't back down easily, either. AFP's journalists
have already held up the five-year plan once, and they have
plenty of time to force further delays.
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