‘AFP is starting a new chapter in the german market for sports news’

Global news agency AFP has announced a restructuring at it’s German sports news agency subsidiary SID Sport-Informations-Dienst – a dual leadership structure with the aim of winning new clients in media and non-media sectors.
Rainer Finke, up to now director of international marketing and sales at German news agency DPA, will take on the role of SID’s managing director based in Cologne. He will work in tandem at the head of the Sport-Informations-Dienst with Jens Wagner, who becomes chief operating officer (COO). The goal is to respond even better to the needs of the media industry at a time when the sports information business is undergoing rapid changes.
The new leadership structure will be completed by Pierre Klein, the new managing director of SID’s services and communications subsidiary, SID Sportmarketing & Communication Services, which for several years now has been successfully developing on-demand productions in the German sports sector. The subsidiary works closely with other AFP affiliates active in this area, AFP Services at a global level and AFP Marketing & Communications Services for the German non-sports market.

They say: “The arrival of Rainer Finke, at the side of Jens Wagner, underscores how important both SID and the German news market in general are to AFP. Germany is the biggest media market in Europe and will continue to play a strategic role at the heart of AFP, through the local subsidiaries,” said AFP CEO Fabrice Fries. “I look forward to the arrival of Rainer Finke, who will bring his commercial experience to help conquer new markets and continue the work of adapting SID to the challenges of the digital age. He will be able to rely internally on Jens Wagner, who knows the sports news agency inside and out after working there for over 20 years and will in particular offer help in the domains of technology and new projects,” Fries added. “Sport coverage, whether in images, text or multimedia formats, is a crucial part of AFP’s global offerings: it accounts for 35% of the entire AFP productions” he added.’

• The new agency structure starts April 1.