site.btaBTA Will Host the Alliance of European News Agencies' Spring Conference in April

BTA Will Host the Alliance
of European News Agencies' Spring
Conference in April


Sofia, December 12 (Metodi Yordanov of BTA) - BTA will host the
Alliance of European News Agencies' (EANA) spring conference
next April. Among the participants will be representatives from
the largest to the smallest news agencies across Europe,
including chief executives, editors-in-chief, marketing and
technical directors. Some 60-65 delegates from the 30 member
agencies are expected to attend the meeting, said EANA Secretary
General Erik Nylen in a BTA interview on Friday.

The fast changing digital world will be a topic on the
conference's agenda, the Secretary General explained. The fact
that people now consume lots of the news via social media and
various online platforms requires adaptation on the part of news
agencies, but also helps develop editorial diversity.

"We must adjust to the speed with which news is consumed by
readers, viewers and listeners. We see that print media is
declining and people turn to digital platforms, where the speed
of news plays an important role. This is where news agencies
have to adjust to a new situation. The good news is that the
agencies are well prepared for this adaptation, as they have
always been operating 24 hours per day, "so we are used to this
round-the-clock fast updating of news," Nylen said.

Commenting the role of copyright protection in the constantly
evolving media environment, Nylen said that many news agencies
are currently facing a huge problem, which stems from those who
develop big profitable businesses without wanting any type of
contracts with the news providers - that is the news agency. "We
all know what we are talking about - big search engines and so
on, that will not pay for you seeing the news agency content,"
he said. "We invest a lot of money and work in collecting the
news and we make our living selling it, therefore we must have
some protection of our content and the right to be remunerated
for the investment we make in collecting those news," Nylen
said. "My general impression of the current copyright
legislation in the EU is that it is more or less adequate when
implemented and used correctly," he said. However, to say that
copyright legislation is absolutely up to date would be an
exaggeration, because normally it evolves a bit slower than
information technology, Nylen added.

Asked about what is newsworthy for European news agencies of all
the things happening in Bulgaria, Nylen pointed out the
political stability and the economic situation. What is
interesting is how the economic crisis is being handled. This is
something that many other European countries have faced over
the past few years. Many economies are under severe pressure,
which leads to protests when salaries are falling and pensions
are not rising in a way that people would deem reasonable. Such
news are the biggest story not only in Bulgaria, but also all
over Europe, he said.

EANA's Secretary General also met with BTA Director General
Maxim Minchev. The guest voiced satisfaction that BTA has agreed
to host EANA's spring conference. MY


/МЙ/