DIGITAL STRATEGIES

INFORMATION KIT

09.22.2011

SUMMARY

I. AFP STRATEGY
A. Key areas of AFPs past development 1. Capitalizing on the Agencys traditional products 2. Proposing new products and services B. AFPs strategy going forward 1. The strategic areas for growth 2. Brand strategy: AFP on the move

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II. NEW BUSINESS TOOLS

A. Focus on AFP FORUM: a new multimedia delivery platform B. New pro applications 1. Putting mobile know-how at the service of AFP clients 2. Professional applications: AFP Mobile Pro

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III. DEVELOPING NEW PRODUCTS FOR NEW USERS

A. The iPad application 1. Experience the world of international news 2. Features: images help you navigate B. Themed photo apps

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IV. APPENDICES

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I.

AFP STRATEGY

AFPs strategy aims to leverage the agencys historic reputation for credibility, independence and rapidity in news gathering as it develops a truly multiplatform approach to news coverage and delivery. This approach will exploit all AFPs resources across text, photo, video and graphics to promote AFPs brand and expand its presence in every possible market, whatever the technological or economic challenges. The Agency has 3 specific goals: - To be a major player in the digital information universe - To strengthen our global presence while redefining our partnerships with traditional media - To apply our resources to all areas of the news

A. KEY AREAS OF AFPS PAST DEVELOPMENT 1. Capitalizing on the Agencys traditional products
a. Resources like video and multimedia, delivering key revenue growth
The agency is restructuring its production and delivery of news with the aim of enriching our products and enhancing revenue. A closer look at what we offer: - The backbone of the Agency remains the text service, ranging from general news to economic coverage to a comprehensive sports service, science, technology and culture. Text products represented 60 percent of AFPs earnings in 2010, though growth has been a relatively modest 6.4 percent since 2004. - Image products (photo, video and graphics) provide a rapidly growing share of AFP revenue, rising from 26% of earnings in 2004 to 37% in 2011. The photo service alone generated revenue of 54.5 million dollars in 2010. This market trend towards image-based news will accelerate in the future, and AFP will continue adapting its products and services to increase market share.

b. New services will give AFP a strong position in the key growth markets outside France and on new platforms
Developing new services like video and graphics, and increasing output across its six production languages has allowed AFP to increase its share of a growing market. From 2004-10, AFPs revenue grew from 322 to 386 million dollars, an increase of nearly 20%. The number of clients grew from 2,600 in 2004 to more than 3,500 in 2010, an increase of 35%, mainly outside France. Including redistributors, the figures are even higher.

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This increase in sales and new subscribers in regions like North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa, and AFPs entry into new media markets like web portals and telecoms have allowed AFP to finance the development of its services for the past decade. To pursue this growth, AFP needs to find new revenue streams.

2. Proposing new products and services

AFP has tapped into new revenue streams by exploiting its global presence, its worldwide distribution network and customer base, and its editorial and technical know-how.

B. AFPS STRATEGY GOING FORWARD

Committing the company to constantly adapt and develop while building on our strengths in photo, multimedia, graphics and the language services, plans have been drawn up for expansion in five key areas.

1. The strategic areas for growth

a. Improving our worldwide coverage
AFP is on the ground in 150 countries with output from 200 bureaus, coordinated by five regional headquarters in Washington, Montevideo, Paris, Nicosia and Hong Kong. With greater focus on fast-developing regions, AFP is promoting new products in emerging countries, and projects have already been launched in Brazil and India. The Brazil project aims to develop the portfolio of press and web clients and to open new markets including television and B2C. In India, AFP is working to forge new partnerships with local news and sports providers on the web and in mobile, building on the success of our coverage of the recent Cricket World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. AFP is already well established in Africa, but to create a network that better corresponds to client needs, we aim to step up local news and feature production, with extra video and sports coverage, as well as general news in English.

b. Strengthening our position in the Arab world

With 13 bureaus spread across the Middle East, AFP is the leading global news agency in the Arab world. By hiring extra staff in 2010 and redeploying resources, the agency is producing a richer, more regionalized service. An increase in Arabic production is to follow, further extending our multicultural coverage. Already a leader in the Arab world with 55% of newspapers in the region taking our Arabic wire service, AFP plans to revamp the service, which provides 300 items daily translated from French and English, to produce Arabic-language content directly from the region, notably Iraq and Egypt.

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c. Multiplying our image-based products

The video service has the highest potential for growth of the Agencys services, and AFP is aiming to bring its historic reputation for credibility and rapidity to bear in video production in order to become a major player in digital news. AFPs late entry into this market has provided unexpected advantages, notably the ability to benefit early from the latest technologies and lower transmission costs. 1,000 new videos a month are produced in 7 languages, and the goal is to triple production through 2012 as well as strengthen our feature and news output. In 2010, AFP became the first news agency to offer videos in High Definition. AFPs photo service, the quality of which is frequently recognized by international prize juries, has increased its output seven-fold since 2000 and now produces 2,500 pictures a day.

d. Setting the pace in sport

Sports is a key driver of AFPs business -- 25% of its international text production and 35% of its global photo output, including that of its German sports news subsidiary SID. The service is the driving force behind a raft of innovations (Flash multimedia applications, news modes of transmission, multi-format and multilingual coverage). Sport Direct, a sports highlights wire with photos, launched in 2008 in French, will be available in English from November, providing news on Football, Tennis, Cycling, Formula 1 and other sports.

These strategic priorities will be supported by: - An overhaul of the content management system to reflect a resolutely "rich media" environment that integrates, harmonizes and synchronizes our text, photo, video and graphics production and delivery. - Changing our commercial offerings to include more made-to-order products with flexible pricing. In France, this kind of segmentation was carried out in close collaboration with AFPs clients.

2. Brand strategy: AFP on the move

Pursuing aggressive innovation on the Internet is both key to building a reputation for new product and business development and central to AFPs efforts to maintain its technological and editorial edge. Making its content available on tablets and smartphones will boost AFPs exposure to a wider public and to information professionals, be they publishers, integrators or redistributors.

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The Agency is developing a new range of white label offers and aims to forge a better understanding of the needs of its clients, from audience capture and retention, to referencing and highlighting content. The end goal is increasing revenues.

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II.

NEW BUSINESS TOOLS

A. FOCUS ON AFP FORUM: A NEW MULTIMEDIA DELIVERY PLATFORM IN 2012

Until now, AFPs product delivery websites were cordoned off by product - AFP-Direct for text services, ImageForum for photo and graphics, VideoForum for video and animated graphics. Today, client needs and user profiles across AFP services are evolving daily, and traditional clients like newspapers are making a greater proportion of their content available online. AFP will support clients as they undergo this change with a new multimedia platform, AFP Forum, that will provide: Simplified access, a single site, a single login and password to access all AFP products. Enhanced user interface so clients can easily access and link text, photo, video and graphics elements from a single event, both for breaking news and archived content. A powerful search engine to provide fast sourcing and sorting of stories, photos, videos and graphics produced by AFP from among the thousands of items put online daily as well as millions of archived items.

The site is produced by a team of journalists working 24/7 on the days top stories as well as on archived material. In addition, this tool will allow AFP to promote new products and services.

B. NEW PRO APPLICATIONS 1. Putting mobile know-how at the service of AFP clients
AFP has been providing flexible, customized mobile solutions since 2007. For the past several years, AFP has been providing essential back-up as clients develop their mobile products. Giving them the benefit of its experience, AFP designs, develops, hosts and maintains mobile sites and applications on behalf of its media clients, operators and businesses, integrating content from AFP and others. AFP provides rich, reliable and easy-to-integrate content such as: - The Internet Journal: world news and a wide variety of other topics in real time, 7-days-a-week in text, photos, graphics and video. - The Mobile Journal: an offshoot of the Internet Journal specifically designed for mobiles, with fast access to the top national and international news. - Photo and video galleries: the best of the days images.

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AFPs mobile applications are currently available on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Java and Samsung Bada. Internationally, AFP has created 7 iPhone applications in white label for the Frankfurter Neue Press Group (Germany), and the Business Wire (United States), as well as mobile sites for NAMPA (Namibia), El Pais (Uruguay) and El Periodico (Guatemala), El Watan (Algeria), WebAsia (Hong Kong) and The French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hong Kong. In France, AFP has delivered 8 applications for the regional press, including La Dpche du Midi, La Voix du Nord, La Provence as well as 15 mobile sites, notably for La Montagne, Le Tlgramme and top regional daily Nice Matin.

2. Professional applications: AFP Mobile Pro

86% of AFPs media clients say they want to be able to consult AFP news on their mobiles, the majority via a single application. AFP has therefore developed a mobile application which will give clients access to its wires, simply and effectively, via their mobiles. It will be multi-platform and available on all the main mobile terminals on the market. AFPs wire on mobile:
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The lead provides as much detail on the breaking news as possible.

AFP survey of media clients in France in September 2010

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With advanced functions: Customization: users will be able to create their own filters in the mobile application or on a Web platform. They can also add RSS feeds of their choice. Search: users can also search using slug, IPTC category, title, text and display the results by relevance or chronologically Alerts: users will be able to receive email alerts.

Alerts:

Search engine

Alert

Access to full article Alert

Alert

Subscription will be by wire, in all six languages (French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic). Users can choose to subscribe to a single wire or several.

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III. DEVELOPING NEW PRODUCTS FOR NEW USERS

A. THE IPAD APPLICATION 1. Experience the world of international news: focus on content
AFP is launching its iPad application on the App Store in English, free of charge and providing access to a selection of fast, accurate news from around the world, on the go. The application links text, photos and videos to offer rich and varied content provided by AFP staff, guaranteeing reliable and accurate news. Agence France-Presse will guide users through the daily flood of information. The application allows users to deepen their experience of daily news.

a. LIVE: get the whole story, from the whole world

Access news in real time direct from the applications homepage with links to the latest stories illustrated with videos and pictures. The latest news appears in the top half of the screen. The user can instantly access the news via the headline and the first paragraph of the article, accompanied by images. A breaking news ticker scrolls continuously at the top of the screen.

The menu provides 15 main topics. General headings provide fast access to the latest news per topic: World news: the latest developments from around the world in politics, business, or conflicts. World Sports: sports news (football/soccer, Formula 1, tennis, golf, cricket, basketball, rugby, athletics...) but also related topics such as sports economics and doping. Earth & Science: the latest in science (with a focus on new developments such as space exploration) and the environment. Tech & Media: the latest on technology, communications and the Internet... Soccer: roundups from the world of football focusing on the English Premiership as well as the Spanish, Italian, German and French leagues. Business: world economic news. Health: key developments in health and medicine (health news, research, legislation, bioethics...). Offbeat: the unusual from around the world. People: celebrity news from the worlds of film, theatre, music, television and culture... Culture: the latest on cinema, theatre, music, video gaming, TV, exhibitions, literature... Lifestyle: a look at how people live their lives around the world.

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Regional topics: AFP has an exceptional network of bureaus and reporters in more than 150 countries, providing on-the-ground expertise on events in even the globes most difficult-to-reach zones. The AFP application provides a close-up of world regions: Africa: the main news from across the continent Middle East: essential news from the Middle East Asia Pacific: the latest news from across the region US news: up-to-the minute American news

Breaking news ticker

Access to the full article

Topics

b. SEE the news: a fresh eye on the news with Video and Photo
Backed by the AFP network, the AFP Photo and Video services cover every aspect of the news. Dive into the heart of the news through the best images of the day in captioned video and photo galleries, providing context in the blink of an eye. Five photo galleries present the best images of the day in sports, fashion, art and features.

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The photo galleries: Five photo galleries: The best photos of the day from across AFPs network Focus on a major news event Top sports photos Offbeat: a selection of striking images Zoom: the best fashion and entertainment shots All the photos in the galleries are available in High Definition format (1024X768).

The video galleries: AFPs international video service was established in 2007, producing around 150 videos a day from 90 bureaus around the world. New videos are accessible daily on this service, providing a varied mix of international news, economic stories, culture, environment as well as offbeat stories. Every video appears as a thumbnail with a short title and caption that identifies the subject at a glance. All the videos in this section are in High Definition.

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c. GOING DEEPER: new ways of looking at the news

To go further, AFP offers another view of the world through a magazine section specially conceived for the iPad by AFPs multimedia department. The content -- photos, stories, videos and graphics -- provides a fresh viewpoint on current events, and gives users the keys to a better grasp of the major stories which affect our planet.

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This part consists of 2 sections: Feature Stories: AFPs take on the world today, with items on society, fashion, the arts... Analysis: deciphering the events making the news. A new story is published daily in each of these sections. AFP will launch Spanish and Portuguese versions of the iPad application in November. Users can also find some of this content on AFPs iPhone apps, launched in January 2010 in five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Arabic. The iPhone application includes features like a photo mosaic that provides a gateway to the news, and a customizable menu to access favorites and switch languages.

2. Features: images help you navigate

The application provides smooth, intuitive navigation that puts images first.

a. Visuals
Navigation: subjects in real time

On the homepage, a thumbnail image gallery provides links to each story in a given topic category. Feature Stories and Analysis sections

Under "Feature Stories" and "Analysis", the most recent story appears in the top half of the screen with a short description of the article. Earlier stories are lined up underneath. Once an item is selected, the + icon at the bottom of the text displays thumbnails links to the other features in the section. The Photo Gallery

Photos and videos appear initially as thumbnails and can be enjoyed full-screen when selected.

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b. Stories
For easier reading, text size can be enlarged or reduced. The reader can access all the articles that accompany the images through the read more function which opens the short text next to the visuals. Navigation through all the stories is done by scrolling.

Toutes les news disponibles sur lapplication peuvent tre transmises par mail grce au bouton

To displays thumbnails of the other available features

Reduce and enlarge the text

News stories in the application can be shared via email:

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B. THEMED PHOTO APPS

AFP is also developing a series of on-demand themed photo applications dedicated to key events, highlights of the year, or the greats of history. The first, available in the next few weeks, will be Eye on a New Century, a compendium of 135 of the Agencys best photos from the first decade of the XXI Century. It features key moments like the destruction of the Bamyan Bhuddas, a farewell to fashion guru Yves Saint Laurent, the Zidane head-butt. The second will focus on the Rugby World Cup.

In January 2012, we will look back on the Arab Spring in a new application to coincide with the anniversary of the first protests. In March, Japan: earthquake/tsunami/Fukushima comes online, followed in May by a special on the 65th Cannes Film Festival and, in the summer, the London Olympics.

Outside of current events or anniversary dates, AFP will offer photo themes on the environment, rites and traditions and offbeat stories... some biographies of notable personalities will also be available. The single-themed applications are priced at 2.99 and 3.99 dollars.

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IV. APPENDICES

The Whole World - The Whole Story One of the worlds top three news agencies, Agence France-Presse covers news from around the world in six languages (French, English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese and German). Regional headquarters in Washington, Montevideo, Paris, Nicosia and Hong Kong coordinate the output of bureaus in 150 countries. Under the direction of the Paris-based editor-in-chiefs office, the regional editorial operations provide real-time news coverage, 24/7, 365 days a year. This network enables AFP to serve its clients as a frontline news gathering force worldwide. AFP teams know the terrain, the issues and the personalities. They can anticipate and react quickly to events in the worlds trouble spots, while remaining objective and providing the background needed to understand complex and fast-moving developments. AFP provides fast, accurate and complete coverage in text, photo, video and graphics on events around the world, from conflicts to politics, sport and culture as well as the key developments in health, science and technology. All these platforms complement one another to provide a view of the news from every angle. The aim is to give clients independent news coverage with all the background, supported by the sharpest images. AFP provides news to all the major national and international media through its exceptional network of local correspondents and experienced teams on the ground, backed by its partners around the world.

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CONTACT : Pierre Fernandez Tel. : +33 (0)1 40 41 49 23 - pierre.fernandez@afp.com