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The board announced its decision after auditioning Fabrice Fries about his strategic plans for the agency and the significant turnaround in the agency’s finances since 2018. 

The chairman stressed three clear strategic priorities for the agency: to consolidate AFP’s leadership in the fight against disinformation, to make AFP the preferred agency for media clients around the world on the back of major progress in both editorial quality and client services, and to accelerate the diversification of its non-media client base.

These plans will be at the heart of the next negotiations with the French government over the next five-year contract of objectives and means (COM) for the 2024-2028 period. This agreement governs relations between AFP and the State.

Fabrice Fries highlighted the progress the agency has made since 2018:

• Growth restored by the continued progress of a quality video product and the development of a new activity: digital verification.

• Restored profitability with positive net income since 2019.

• Restructured debt and the prospect of full debt repayment by the end of 2028.

• Neighboring rights recognized after the signature of an agreement with Google.

• The real estate issue settled in Paris as all the Parisian teams have been brought together in the renovated headquarters at Place de la Bourse.

• A constructive social dialogue as demonstrated by the signing of agreements on difficult topics.

• Effective crisis management such as the Covid pandemic, the evacuation of Afghan employees and the coverage of the war in Ukraine.

• AFP’s improved image thanks to its financial recovery but also its commitment in the fight against disinformation.

The board recognized the quality of the project and its capacity to face a darker economic context which will require the agency's pursuit of greater transformation.

Fabrice Fries’ new mandate will be effective at the end of his current mandate, on April 15, 2023.

Fabrice Fries, 62, has been CEO of AFP since April 2018. He previously spent most of his career in the media industry (Havas, Vivendi), in IT (Atos) and in corporate communications (Publicis). He is an alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure and ENA.