European national news agencies

Abstract

This article calls for more concerted scholarly attention to the role of national news agencies. The authors argue that the very viability of the institution of national news agency in many parts of Europe is under severe strain. The sources of pressure, however, are identifiably similar to those which have plagued news agencies since their inception, having to do with issues of ownership, relationship to the state, relations with clients, achieving economic balance, and technology investment. Particular attention here is given to crises of ownership. In western Europe, these are often to do with the tensions between media owners’ interests in protecting their own media from competition and in securing exclusive or privileged access to the services which their news agencies provide, and managers’ interests in diversifying the range of services they provide for the benefit of the greatest possible number of clients. Owners themselves are becoming incorporated within global media enterprises, undermining the very notion of a ‘national’ agency. In central and eastern Europe, crises often have to do with the changing role of the state in its relationship to new agencies, and in particular the tendency on the part of the state to maintain some kind of political involvement even as its financial support for the news agency declines.