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| - Agence France-Presse, one of the world's major news agencies, reported a small profit last year but warned that the coronavirus crisis would have an inevitable impact on its business. The company said in a statement that operating profit rose to 7.1 million euros in 2019, while it turned in a net profit of 400,000 euros, a sharp turnaround from a deficit of 2.6 million euros the year before. It is AFP's first profit since 2013. Excluding non-recurring items, operating profit rose by nearly a fifth to 5.2 million euros, thanks to what AFP said was "rigorous" cost management and savings generated by a transformation plan, including voluntary redundancies. A total of 78 positions will be eliminated under the redundancy programme which AFP said would bear fruit mainly from 2020. In the absence of major sporting events such as the Olympic Games or World Cup football tournaments, AFP's commercial revenues were down just 0.5 percent to 167 million euros. But the agency said its strategy of developing its video and photo services as well as fact-checking "have made it possible to offset the effects of the continuing crisis in the written media". AFP has also benefited from increased support from the French state of 124.4 million euros. But the agency warned that the coronavirus pandemic "will have an inevitable impact" on its core business, due to the difficulties it will cause in the media sector, the cancellation of sporting events and a reduction in content sales based on shared advertising revenue. It said it could not make an overall estimate of the effect of the crisis on 2020 results but that "it is already doing everything possible to protect its margins". fpo/txw/rlp/har
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