A Long Tradition of Newsgathering: AFP is the world’s oldest established news agency, founded in 1835 by Charles-Louis Havas, the father of global journalism. Today, the agency continues to expand its operations world- wide, reaching thousands of subscribers (radios, TVs, newspapers, companies) from its main headquarters in Paris and regional centers in Washington, Hong Kong, Nicosia and Montevideo. All share the same goal: to guarantee a top quality international service tailored for the specific needs of clients in each region.
Some Key Dates
- 1832 – Charles-Louis Havas sets up a foreign newspapers translation agency.
- 1835 – The agency becomes the Agence Havas, the first world- wide news agency.
- 1 August 1940 – In London, Paul-Louis Bret launches Agence française Information (AFI) ; November 1940 – Legislation forces the splitting up of the advertising and newsgathering operations of Agence Havas. The newsgathering operation, now owned by the State, becomes the Office Français d’Information (OFI, or French Information Office).
- 15 November 1942 – In Algiers, Paul-Louis Bret launches the Agency.
- 15 March 1944 – In Algiers, the provisional government merges the Office Français d’Information and France-Afrique, thus forming Agence Française de Presse.
- 30 September 1944 – A decree confers to AFP the provisional status of public corporation.
- January 1946 to September 1954 – AFP’s worldwide network is reinstated.
- 4 March 1953 – AFP gains international fame for breaking news of Stalin’s death.
- 10 January 1957 – AFP has 25 provincial bureaux, 59 bureaux overseas (including 13 in the former colonies) and correspondents present in 116 countries. It distributes news in 73 countries.
- 1st February 1962 – The BBC starts subscribing.
- 1st January 1969 – Launch of the Arabic language service.
- 1st August 1971 – Satellites are used for transmissions.
- 6 September 1972 – An hour ahead of everyone else, AFP breaks the news of the Israeli hostages’ deaths at the Olympic Games in Munich. On the following 22 November, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times sign up for distribution of AFP news in the S.
- October 1973 – The Board of Directors decides to computerize AFP.
- November 1975 – An agreement on computerization is reached. The Latin-American desk will be the first to be computerized in March 1976.
- 1 January 1982 – The Hong-Kong desk is computerized. The Asia-Pacific region now has its own headquarters.
- 15 October 1984 – Launch of the audio service.
- 1 January 1985 – Launch of the international photo service.
- 27 September 1988 – AFP scoops the world by two hours in announcing that Ben Johnson failed a drugs test leading to his disqualification from the Seouln from the Seoul Olympic Games. 1 October 1988 – Launch of the graphics service.
- 4 February 1991 – Launch of AFX News, an English-language economic subsidiary.
- April 1995 – Launch of AFP-Direct, enabling personalized transmissions of AFP services. September 1995 – AFP ends its agreement with the AP on its provision of American news and sets up an autonomous gathering network in the S.
- March 2000 – AFP buys out the Financial Times Group’s 50% holding in AFX.
- September 2001- New partners for AFP’s online image bank service.
- November 2001 – Facing the world-Great moments in photojournalism by Agency France-Presse. February 2002 – Interactive television: AFP joins forces with Visiware.
- March 2002 – AFP breaks new ground in Japan.
AFP Worldwide
AFP’s worldwide network takes in 165 countries, of which 110 are home to bureaus, and 50 are covered by local correspondents. Coverage is organized around five regions, which are: North America HQ: Washington – nine bureaus Latin America HQ: Montevideo – 15 bureaus Asia-Pacific HQ: Hong Kong – 25 bureaus Europe-Africa HQ: Paris – 36 European bureaus and 16 African ones Middle East HQ: Nicosia – nine bureaus
Within France the regional network comprises seven bureaus, in Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Rennes, Strasbourg and Toulouse. A bureau manager based in Paris coordinates the French network.
Concept of News Lines
News lines are characteristic properties of news objects such as slug, headline, byline, dateline, and copyright information.
They represent information in a human readable form and are characteristically displayed alongside the content of an object.
Using News Lines, providers state some presentation rules for the information they deliver.
When several news objects grouped inside a News Component share the same News Lines, those are usually attached to the container News Component, to avoid duplication. News lines are inherently textual and may be present in multiple languages
