Agence France-Presse (AFP) plans to build up its brand image by boosting its Internet presence with its own destination news website and on platforms such as the iPad, its chief executive Emmanuel Hoog said, reported in an AFP article on Yahoo! News.

In a video interview with Le Figaro's Buzz Média Orange, Hoog said the AFP's board of directors has approved a 3,7% budget increase for 2011: "a development budget".

As discussed earlier, in order to compete with the other big news providers Associated Press and Thomson Reuters, AFP is going mobile. Investments will be made to develop the agency's presence on the web as well as on digital devices like the iPhone and the iPad.

Although AFP is the world's third largest newswire, some newspapers, like 20 Minutes, have recently decided to drop its services and this has affected the news agency's primary source of revenue.

Its plan going forward includes tripling its video outpit within the next two years and investing on foreign media markets like the Arab-language, the Indian and the Brasilian ones.
Video development follows the last September announce of the launch of a high definition video newswire.

The AFP also plans to launch its own news website which will be free of charge and addressed to the wide public. As the agency's strategy has always been to distribute content via its member newspapers and not to sell to consumers, "the project provoked a strong reaction from French news publishers", Le Figaro reported.

"There is not an arm wrestling", commented Hoog at this end adding that "between AFP and the news publishers there has always been a deep and intelligent relationship."

During the board of directors' meeting it was also decided that a working group will examine how to best develop the new web strategy.

What will this mean for the future of AFP?

Sources: Yahoo! News, Le Figaro