Agence France-Presse reviews dramatic year

It is reportedly the first international news agency with full HD and also offers upgraded video output in Portuguese and Arabic. Its client base includes Sky News, NBC, BBC, CBS, Yahoo, Russia Today, France's BFMTV and Orange.

Its exclusive videos, backed by its global network of journalists, included a recording of the voice of Anders Behring Breivik during the shootings in Norway and images of repression from several reporting assignments in Syria.

Top awards

Production across the agency continues to flourish, with its established network of journalists covering major stories on the ground. Several of its journalists were recognised with awards in 2011, including the World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, British Sports Journalists Awards, White House News Photographers Association, NPPA Awards, etc. Time magazine selected an AFP photo as one of its top 10 news images of the year. Its journalists were awarded the Bayeux War Correspondents Prize, France's Albert Londres Prize and first prize for 3D videography by the Asian Conference on Digital Media in Hong Kong.

Its sales performance has revenue stable at 280 million euros compared to 2010 and a net profit of nearly €2m (about R21m). This performance is particularly noteworthy given that the agency faced significant unexpected costs in covering the Arab Spring, the Fukushima disaster and the conflict in the Ivory Coast. Turnover increased due to growth in video (26%), the Internet Journal (10%) and to a lesser extent, photo (1.6%). It increased its client base to 3700 worldwide, a 35% increase in five years.

With the exception of the Middle East, which experienced major upheaval, its forecasts a global revenue increase, particularly in South America (+3%), in Asia (+3%) and in Africa (+9%).