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Reznik: Past Year Was One of Most Successful in TASR History
Tuesday 16 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 16 (TASR) - The past year can be considered as one of the most successful in the history of the News Agency of the Slovak Republic (TASR), TASR General Director Jaroslav Reznik said at a session of the parliamentary Media Committee on Tuesday.
Reznik pointed to new products, growth in clients and a balanced economy. "On one hand, this was an era of stabilisation, and an era of progress on the other, as we have begun to build a strong TASR brand," said Reznik.
In the past year, the agency published more than 131,000 stories in Slovak, 8,000 in English, 4,000 in German, with more than 15,000 audio files, 6,000 video files and 63,000 photographs. The number of TASR employees in December 2009 was 162, of whom 148 were editorial staff members.
In accordance with its public service status, TASR published 100,000 archival photographs for study and academic purposes along with its audioservice and video production all freely available for non-commercial use. TASR has also introduced a service in German, and is offering up-to-date news in its Zone of Public Interest above and beyond the scope mandated by the Act governing the agency.
The general director considers the introduction of the modern 'TASR Business' application to be a breakthrough move, providing viewing access to a complete videoservice database. The 'TASR for Every School' project allows primary schools, high schools and universities access to all agency services not only for education purposes but also for their school magazines, radio or websites. "In this way we are building a network of new correspondents and future reporters. In February, we gave awards to 16 of the most-active contributors over the past year," said Reznik.
Since February 2009, TASR has seen its revenues grow from the sale of its products and services. Incomes have increased by 25.3 percent in comparison to 2008. "I regard this as an excellent result, especially in light of ongoing global crisis that affected the agency news service as well," Reznik pointed out. He added that TASR, which was established in 1993, also had to deal with inherited debts.
"Currently, TASR's accounts are rid of all burdens from the past, making our work a lot easier." The global economic crisis caused a temporary drop in clients. However, the situation turned itself around in the first half of 2009, with the number of clients gradually growing as of June. "The portfolio of TASR clients has stabilised, and is based on better quality co-operation," said Reznik.
He considers a high-quality, fast, verified and unbiased news service to be a must. Reznik also sees strategic importance in multimedia interconnection of stories, pictures, audio and video files along with new products based on the most modern technologies. TASR has to focus on new media, and try to implement unconventional agency segments, according to Reznik. In future, TASR plans to offer live coverage of press conferences.
"TASR has accomplished all of its main tasks, laying the groundwork for successful closing of 2010 even despite the crisis," said Reznik, adding that maintaining a balanced budget remains a top priority.
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