Pigeat: AFP should partner with government

Posted by Alisa Zykova on April 22, 2010 at 7:34 AM

Henri Pigeat, former president of Agence France Presse and current president of CFPJ (Centre de Formation et de Perfectionnement des Journalistes) revealed in a video interview with daily French paper Le Figaro that the AFP would be needing between €130 and €150 million for the next five years. The figures consist of estimations and Pigeat noted that there was no concrete business plan yet.

Financial backing might incorporate stockholders' equity as well as funding from within AFP. Pigeat said the sum was "reasonable" and would be necessary to promote technological evolution. He added that today's news agencies functioned on a variety of interactive multimedia platforms with hypertext, which subsequently indicated that there must be both an IT-based and an editorial transformation.

Pigeat and a group of experts drew up a report on the future of the agency and discussed it with Culture and Communication Minister Frédéric Mitterrand, according to Le Figaro. AFP would need to preserve its values while constructing an "editorial" firm in partnership with the state-owned Caisse des Dépôts.The report outlined that here is hope for a "clarification and normalization of financial relations between the agency and the State," according to l'Humanité.

As part of its technological development, AFP would be embracing video journalism. According to Pigeat, AFP cannot become a global news provider unless it consists of video coverage. The report also called for the increased editorial multimedia integration, the archiving of text and images as well as the overall boost in diversity, l'Humanité reported.

Pigeat affirmed that editorial independence was a fundamental factor within news agencies since it guaranteed quality content and might reflect economic independence. AFP aims not simply to preserve its status as quality news provider but also to infuse itself with something that will give it a competitive edge in the current media environment. The agency's economic plan was defined in 1957 when it was launched and managed to operate for decades. However, it might not be suitable today, Pigeat suggested.

Media outlets are faced with the question of social networks, which are evidently a "source" for information, Pigeat said. He explained that he did not see them as real sources tendering to credible information, just like he did not consider citizen journalism to be real journalism.

The problem with social networks is that they deliver content in real-time, which subsequently means that all other media (including print) is no longer providing permanent, 24-hour journalism. Sometimes social networks may be used as a source, but in order to upkeep quality reporting, journalists need time and professionalism, Pigeat acceded.