Annual Report 2022

FORWARD-PLANNING

INTERVIEW

SOPHIE HUET

GLOBAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

"Forward-planning for better-quality coverage."

Forward-planning is by definition at the

very heart of an agency journalist’s job.

Why highlight it in 2022?

It is true that being well-prepared for what's coming next lies

at the heart of what we do. Some events are predictable and

you can prepare for them. This enables you to tackle the co-

verage with less stress. It’s something we have to integrate

into our culture. But it’

s still not ingrained everywhere so we

have to continue to make progress. Good preparation also

improves the coverage. We have more time to think of good

angles, do more research, flesh out the context. We can also

think how best to present the information, organise photo,

video, lives, and the technical side of things. It also gives us

time to pull together archives in text and images.

Is AFP’s Ukraine coverage a good example

of this?

The war in Ukraine has been a mix of the predictable and

the unpredictable. When the Russians invaded, we had

already laid the groundwork in terms of our staffing and the

safety of our teams on the ground even if we were caught

unawares like everyone else We then worked tirelessly on

forwardplanning rotating our teams of special correspon

dents setting up the Ukraine cell really making sure eve

ryone was safe

We were agile and flexible solving problems that we iden

tified from our feedback sessions with reporters back from

the field We had specific meetings on the possibility of a

nuclear strike whether it be a tactical or a dirty bomb The

aim was to work out what special equipment we would

need and what measures we would need to take in advance

Between the start of the offensive and the summer we de

ployed a considerable number of people on the ground

Since September we have revised this again with longer

missions based mainly in Kyiv special correspondents on

the frontline with security advisors and more locally hired

stringers Reporting from the frontline is exhausting and

we have cut back the length of missions

Is there special attention paid to the safety

of the teams in the field during the forward-

planning process?

The question of security was a bit of a blind spot in our

forward-planning machine. The war in Ukraine showed us

the need to bolster this aspect within the Chief Editor’s team.

Jean-Marc Mojon, former Beirut bureau chief, has been ap-

pointed to oversee editorial forward-planning as well as the

security issues surrounding an event. Working with Emma-

nuel Serot, already in charge of security training and equip-

ment at the technical chief editor’s department, Jean-Marc

will ensure that our teams are well-trained, well-equipped,

and that reconnaissance missions have taken place before-

hand. He will also ensure the mental health aspects of cove-

ring such events is taken into account.

Why does video play such a key role in

forward-planning?

The entire forward-planning process is driven to a large

extent by video because it requires a lot of staff and better

preparation Video are also generally more in tune with

clients requests The rest of the newsroom should learn

from this and get used to getting ahead of the curve

Is the agenda a key tool when it comes to

forwardplanning

The agenda published for clients and the internal planning

tool Iris360 helps to share information better at all levels

of the agency between all the different disciplines from

the bureaux up to the chief editing team Everyone knows

that they need to be constantly feeding these databases

with new events It is the responsibility of every journalist

to input the events on hisher patch as well as to lay out the

coverage expected The agenda is an important sales pro

duct that is extremely useful for clients But its also a key

tool for internal communication

How can everyone plan better?

By thinking about the future (and not just for updating the

agenda!). A significant proportion of the news can be pre-

pared in advance by pulling together already-verified infor-

mation, thinking ahead about how an event would be cove-

red, producing the topics required in advance, looking for

useful archive footage. In certain regions prone to natural

disasters or frequent attacks, for example, the necessary

background needs to be updated all the time and ready to

publish at any moment.

Forward-planning reduces stress, results in better-quality

coverage, but also frees up bandwidth to tackle unforeseen

events.

It is therefore critical that every bureau, every region takes

part in the forward-planning process, via an open editorial

debate that includes all the different disciplines.

By forcing us to look further ahead, forward-planning also

helps us question our editorial guidelines and adapt them to

changes in society. How do we cover news in a country that

restricts access to media? How do we integrate advances in

artificial intelligence into our daily workflow? How do we

tackle news avoidance by large sections of the public? It

is important for everyone to take a step back, observe the

latest trends, and get ready to respond appropriately.

The death of Queen Elizabeth II required a huge amount of pre

paration by the Europe and Global Chief Editors Video spent

two years negotiating over royal pool images After tough talks

we signed a deal with the managers of this pool just before the

queen died This gave us access to good filming positions We

bought archive images eight months in advance

A large number of stories were ready to go in approved al

lowing time for translation into other languages The coverage

plan

had been drawn up well in advance Bureaux abroad were

mobilised notably across the Commonwealth All this prepara

tion resulted in smooth complete and highquality coverage

Photo and video archives were ready as soon as the flash an

nouncing her death had moved

The

same was true of the death of Pelé and Pope Benedict XVI

which happened during the end of year holidays with few staff

available Despite this everything went smoothly because it

was well prepared in advance

For elections in France Brazil and the United States coverage

plans were drawn up well in advance and we were ready to react

to different possible scenarios

The sports service is a master of forwardplanning The logistical

and editorial planning ahead of the World Cup was impressive

On the topic of the Future of the Planet natural disasters are

a key event for our wires We are quick to deploy staff on the

ground but also to plan for repeat occurrences in certain areas

prone to them Forwardplanning plays a key role in the cove

rage of the COP notably by digging into reports and identifying

possible topics for reportage and image coverage that enables

us to go beyond the statistics and give a human dimension to

these themes

In this vein we published special reports on biodiversity under

threat polar bears beluga whales the Boreal forests of Canada

or on the rivers that were once the cradle of humanity and are

today in grave danger the Tigris and the Nile

Forward-planning at every level: a few examples