- Mediafax
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Mediafax (Romanian pronunciation: [ˌmedi.aˈfaks]) is a Romanian media company headquartered in Bucharest and founded in 1991. It is a part of the MediaPro Group and its primary line of business is a news and photography service that covers the needs of 90% of the Romanian printed media and 70% of the national TV and radio stations. The company's Mediafax Business Information products include a variety of business news and data, such as currency market, business opportunities, calls for tender, statistics and company data.
Contents
History
Mediafax was set up in the fall of 1991, as a member of the MediaPro Group, within a market where Rompres, the state-owned news agency, held a monopoly. The first news items were typewritten and sent in envelopes to the headquarters of central newspapers. Later, newswires were sent nationwide through fax machines every hour. The initial team behind the Mediafax brand comprised 12 journalists. The name of the company comes from its beginnings on the news agencies market, when the newswires were sent through fax machines to the Romanian media.
On February 7, 1994, the company turned into a share company, Mediafax S.A., and expanded its team to approximately 100 journalists. In the same year, Mediafax launched its business service. The first product it offered was the Executive Package, which was structured on several types of economic information. Later, Mediafax launched Mediafax Foto service, to distribute Romanian and foreign news photographs. This services is the exclusive distributor of France Presse Photo (Agence France-Presse) on the domestic market.
In 1997, Mediafax started the Business Focus service, a real time business information service offering online access to news and news archives. This became part of the Mediafax’s corporate website started that year which made all the news, photos and archives available online.
Mediafax was the first on the Romanian market to offer professional media monitoring services to businesses and PR agencies[citation needed]. Back in 1998, when the Mediafax Monitoring Service was started, Romanian companies and institutions had no alternative but to clip the media with their own resources.
Mediafax Business Information products widened in 2000 to include business information flows specialized on distinct markets: construction, energy, tourism, IT&C, agriculture. The same year marks the appearance of the Mediafax Annual Report range which now covers five fields: Media and Advertising, Business Construct, Financial, Retail and Auto.
In 2003, Mediafax content services expanded to include Mediafax Mobility to offer mobile content to the largest mobile telephony operators in Romania. The projects run in partnership with Orange and Vodafone have transformed Mediafax into a WAP provider and integrator.
Today Mediafax has 4.5m euros in revenue, approximately 350 permanent staff and 150 collaborators and more than 1,700 corporate clients. Mediafax now posts approximately 500 news reports per day.
Products and services
Mediafax Mass-Media News
This business unit addresses Romanian mass-media and governmental institutions, providing the following products:
- Mediafax Online News – It daily delivers more than 300 local and international news in a single package, on the following fields: politics, social, economy, sports, culture, justice, defense and foreign affairs
- Mediafax specialized newswire on specific areas: Economic, Life, Weekend, Intelligence, Sports, Transylvania, Hungarian-language News
- News Archive – Online news archive since 1994, with over 1 million domestic and international news, updated daily
- Documentary – It provides on-request in-depth materials on the top stories, chronologies, access to a biographical database with approx. 1,000 entries, access to the LEX database comprising more than 45,000 legislative acts. [1]
- Mediafax Audio – It provides exclusive statements and interviews made by and with public personalities [2]
- Mediafax Photo – Online news photos covering national and international events, photo archive since 1995, infographics, stock images, studio photography [3]
Mediafax Business Information
This division provides business information to large companies and SMEs, institutions, PR and marketing agencies
- Media Monitoring Service – It offers on request reports and media analysis covering all the Romanian central print press and national radio and TV stations
- Mediafax Press releases – Paid press release distribution service
- Mediafax Business News - Specialized newsletters on distinct fields, which are sent to corporate clients via e-mail (Media&Advertising [4], Agriculture News, Auto News, Construction News, Energy News, Financial News, Info Leasing, Legal News, Pharma News, Tourism, IT&C News)
- Mediafax Annual Report – Five annual reports (Media&Advertising, Business Construct, Financial, Retail and Auto) that target very specific trades
Mediafax Mobile & Internet
This division provides WAP content on mobile handsets and web advertising services.
A school of journalism
Since Mediafax was one of the pioneers on the Romanian media market after the 1989 Revolution, many former employees are now working in the newsrooms of publications all over Romania, and in ministerial press offices (e.g.: European Integration Ministry, Ministry of Education).
Public figures that worked with Mediafax include the current spokesperson with the Presidency of Romania and previously of the Radu Vasile government (1998–1999), the secretary general of the Romanian Liberal Party (PNL) and the secretary of the Defense Commission within the Chamber of Deputies.
Also see
External links
Categories:- Companies based in Bucharest
- Companies established in 1991
- Photography in Romania
- News agencies
- News agencies based in Romania
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