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BETA NEWS AGENCY

The BETA news agency began operating in May 1994. Today, six years later, BETA is one of the leading news agencies not only in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but also in the region in regard to the number of news articles it releases, its number of clients and the reputation it enjoys.

BETA releases on average 250 news items in its daily services in Serbian and English. Also, BETA releases every day a package of sound reports from its correspondents, intended for electronic news media. Once a week, the agency publishes an English-language bulletin containing political analyses for its foreign clients at home and abroad. Once a month, BETA publishes a bulletin devoted to current economic analyses and forecasts for the territory of the former Yugoslavia and Albania, in English, for foreign subscribers.

BETA is a regional agency with correspondents in the entire territory of the former Yugoslavia and all neighboring countries. Its foreign correspondents are seated in several major European centers as well.

BETA's daily service contains reports prepared mostly by the agency's reproters. News items released by international news agencies (AFP, Reuters, AP) and processed by BETA, as well as news items received through news exchange, account for some 10 to 15 percent of the daily service.

BETA exchanges its daily service with the ITAR-TASS news agency from Moscow, the ONASA news agency from Sarajevo, and the Mediafax news agency from Romania. The exchange with ONASA dates from as far back as 1994 and was the first business arrangement between two independent media houses from Sarajevo and Belgrade since the onset of the war in the former Yugoslavia.

In January 2000 BETA had 248 subscribers to all its services. Almost all independent news media in Serbia and Montenegro are regular users of BETA's services. Also, a number of news media close to the government are BETA's clients, as well as certain state institutions (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Yugoslav Army, the Office of the President of Serbia) and most opposition parties.

BETA has subscribers in both entities in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Macedonia. As of January 2000, news media in Croatia (Jutarnji List) are using BETA's services. A number of Croatian Belgrade-based correspondents and the Belgrade correspondent of Slovenian TV are also regular subscribes to BETA.

Among the agency's clients are a number of foreign embassies in Belgrade, foreign correspondents, and foreign broadcasters whose programs are targeted at the region or the region's expatriates: the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, BBC, Deutsche Welle, WDR Cologne. BETA's subscribers also include the Frankfurt-based newspaper Vesti and the Canadian newspaper Novine, intended for expatriates.

BETA's Web page (www.beta-press.com) offers a breakdown of headline news from the country and the region, which is updated four times per day. A part of this site is BETA's Kosovo On-Line service, initiated by BETA and the Pristina-based Albanian-language daily Koha Ditore in February 1998. Kosovo On-Line is the first business arrangement of two independent news media from Belgrade and Pristina.

BETA is a recepient of the prestigious Jug Grizelj Award for 1997, for its achievements in investigative journalism.

At the beginning of 2000, 142 permanent an contract employees were working for BETA: journalists, translators, technicians and office staff. Of them, four-fifths were journalists and 47 were permamently employed.

PROJECTS IN 2001

In 2001, the Beta News Agency plans to widen its audio service, create a stable service in culture, initiate photo and sports services, and develop and strengthen its Hungarian language service in collaboration with the Novi Sad-based newspaper, Czalady Kor (see project). BETA also plans to expand existing cooperation with regional news agencies such as, Onasa, ATA, Mediafax, and to initiate cooperation with the Kosovo Albanian agency, Kosovo Live, but talks on that prospect are yet to take place.

The services we intend to move are to make Beta's offer complete. Their opening would stabilize BETA as a news agency and encircle its market offer, extending clients the same kind of services provided by any major world news agency.

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Phone +41-1-272 46 37,  Fax +41-1-272 46 82, email: info@MEDIENHILFE.ch