PARIS: The chairman of Agence France-Presse (AFP) outlined his plans Friday to cut costs at the news agency with a retirement incentive scheme and a reduction in spending on expatriate journalists.
Fabrice Fries warned last month that the group needed to save 12-14 million euros ($13.8-16.1 million) by the end of 2026 due to a fall in revenues.
Speaking to employee representatives on Friday, he said he hoped to save 4-5 million euros a year with a retirement incentive plan in which 50-70 employees would leave and not be replaced.
Costs linked to AFP’s foreign network of journalists would also be cut by around 3.0 million euros a year, or around 10 percent of the total, he said.
This would be achieved by reducing the number of jobs with expatriate conditions, which typically include housing benefits and school fees.
“AFP is committed to expatriation,” Fries said – but “not at any price”. An experienced journalist working in Germany on expatriate conditions costs the same as four locally employed early-career reporters, he added.
Funding the cost-saving measures would require “external financing”, he said. That could mean taking a loan from the French state, rescheduling existing debt payments or a bank loan.
AFP, one of the world’s biggest news agencies with 2,600 staff worldwide, has been affected by an ongoing global downturn for the media industry as well as several short-term factors.
Fears about a global recession has led many clients to enter “wait-and-see mode” and either delay investment decisions or reduce their budgets, Fries explained last month.
Funding cuts from the US government under President Donald Trump have also hit AFP clients. Some of them, such as Voice of America, have been forced to cancel their subscriptions.
Social network giant Facebook has also terminated its fact-checking programme in the United States, for which AFP was an important paid partner.
After seven years of growth, AFP’s revenues are set to fall this year to around eight million euros less than forecast in the budget, according to management.
AFP is one of the world’s three major general news agencies, alongside US-based Associated Press and Canadian-owned Reuters.
It produces news stories, photos, videos and graphics for media companies around the world in six languages.
Alongside its commercial income, the agency also receives funding from the French state, which amounted to 118.9 million euros in 2024.
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