Annual Report 2022

11 •

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

What lessons have we learned from Covid

and homeworking?

We have an upper limit of two days per week for AFP staff at

HQ. This allows for a good level of interaction, which is par-

ticularly important in a newsroom. The practise of hybrid

working that came out of Covid will continue. Homewor-

king allows for a better work-life balance. But this new way

of working requires a change in our methods and practises,

and we have not yet completely adapted.

For professions where homeworking is an option, the goal

is to be able to work just as well at home as in the office

AFP has made strides in terms of making its procedures

more digital working with collaborative tools and equip

ping meeting rooms for hybrid meetings We still have work

to do on two aspects relating to hybrid work We need a

better takeup of collaborative tools so they can be used

in the best way for different teams and prevent too many

simultaneous communication channels We also need to

change how we manage and communicate to ensure good

teamwork and maintain a proper level of interaction

The pandemic and homeworking have increased AFPs re

silience and we learned even more in terms of crisis mana

gement

How have these new working methods af

fected the way management communicates

with their teams

We’re already very familiar with distance working at AFP,

not from homeworking but from working with bureaux and

teams all over the world in different time zones. Historical-

ly, the preferred way of communicating with these teams

was to travel.

But with the possibilities offered by collaborative tools, we

have learned to communicate differently with our teams

across the globe. To talk to all our staff worldwide, we or-

ganised three Q&A sessions via videoconference, juggling

various languages and timezones. The tools allow the staff

to ask us questions without barriers. These sessions allow

us to communicate on the latest news affecting the Agency

but it is also a good gauge of what is concerning our staff

across the network

Is AFP greener than a year ago

We decided in 2022 to go faster in terms of getting a grip on

how our business affects the environment On the editorial

front AFP has made coverage of the future of the planet a

major strategic priority that sets us apart from our competi

tors As a business AFP has for years been taking measures

to reduce its use of energy and consumables but without

setting a clear goal We have therefore decided to change

gear and take a more structured approach by measuring

for the first time in 2023 our global carbon footprint across

our entire network 151 countries which will be a baseline

to build a climate strategy At the same time in 2022 we

took targeted measures to reduce our energy use