•

"

2022 was supposed to be a year of consolidation, thanks to the benefits

from neighbouring rights. But in fact, AFP was profoundly affected in

2022 by the shockwaves from the war in Ukraine and the inflation that

soared as a result

."

AFP declared at the end of 2021 that all the

signals had turned green. Is this still the

case a year later?

We said at the end of 2021, with good reason, that AFP’s

financial position had broadly stabilised. In 2022, AFP

continued its transformation plan:- keeping up efforts to

streamline our organisation, finishing off our building plans

and leaving our rented offices in September, accelerating

the development of images, pushing ahead with digital in-

vestigation, sealing our neighbouring rights with the first full

effective year of the Google deal. Our efforts over four years

have enabled us to reduce our debt, which was one of the

major concerns. Debt levels have dropped from more than

50 million euros at the end of 2017 to 33 million euros at the

end of 2022. We still need to keep a close eye on this, but we

have put everything in place to deal with it.

This recovery has also helped us face the difficulties that

sprang up in 2022 and which are continuing into 2023. 2022

was supposed to be a year of consolidation, thanks to the

benefits from neighbouring rights. But in fact, AFP was pro-

foundly affected in 2022 by the shockwaves from the war in

Ukraine and the inflation that soared as a result

Covering the war in Ukraine in the remarkable way that AFP

did was above all due to the way our teams mobilised AFPs

fundamental mission required that we covered this difficult

story in an exemplary manner making sure the quality of

the coverage was perfect while also looking after the phy

sical and psychological wellbeing of our teams We freed up

considerable resources both financial and in terms of our

staff to fulfil our mission and offer our clients very compre

hensive coverage

We have teams all over the world and inflation is hitting

extraordinary levels in some countries AFP had to offer ap

propriate wage increases in several countries where the pur

chasing power of its staff was severely curtailed

The impact of these measures combined with the costs of

covering the war a rise in energy and transport costs and

a strengthening in the dollar In total nearly eight million

euros in extra costs over the full year compared to the fore

casts in the Contract of Objectives and Means signed in 2019.

It meant that our profits dipped in 2022 despite a growth in

turnover.

The only reason we could take action on wages and absorb

the other shocks is because of the significant measures we

have taken over the past four years to put the Agency on an

even keel.

Our biggest strength is the depth of our network. It’s also

what makes us the most exposed because we have to face

up to difficult situations in several places and a broad se-

ries of risks in order to carry out our mission. We need si-

gnificant resources to do our job, both to ensure coverage

of the news but also to modernise the Agency. AFP has no

shareholders, which guarantees its independence but also

requires the Agency to maintain healthy finances to face up

to these challenges and continue paying down its debt. Our

only choice in the face of these endless challenges is to find

ways to develop and streamline.

2022 also saw the return to AFP’s Paris

headquarters…

The first people went back in January and the last in June

AFP showed that it can manage difficult projects like this

during a pandemic no less by hitting the planned time

table give or take a few days within budget give or take a

few euros for an overall result that is very satisfactory We

decided to bring together our teams into a single renovated

building handing back 2000 square metres that we had

rented in July 2019 This decision turned out to be perfect

in the postCovid word with an increase in homeworking

and hybrid work and the efforts we are making to reduce

our energy consumption We had a lot of freedom to fit the

space around our needs because we own the building at

Place de la Bourse Our workspaces are now more open

more collaborative However for those not used to open

space offices there are new areas to be alone if needed for

concentration We are very proud of our newsroom with all

the chief editing teams and live video at its heart

DALILA ZEIN

MANAGING DIRECTOR

THE YEAR AS SEEN BY

INTERVIEW

?

.,-

.

.-

-.

,

.

,

’,

.-

,

.

,

.,-

&,

.

.