Tanjug closes fiscal 2013 on positive note

BELGRADE - For the fourth year in a row, Tanjug News Agency showed a positive balance in its financial statement, the news agency’s managing board has said in a release.

The good result was achieved despite the fact that the Serbian government as the news agency's owner has reduced subsidies for its services.

Tanjug’s market revenues grew by five percent in 2013 against the year before, continuing the trend of the previous three years, according to the financial statement adopted by the news agency's managing board.

The board noted that the agency succeeded in making a profit in the difficult circumstances of the economic crisis and an extremely bad financial situation in the media market, which is the largest user of Tanjug’s services but turned out to be shaky ground when it comes to collection of payments, exposing the news agency to liquidity risks throughout almost the entire year.

In addition, 2013 saw Tanjug setting aside close to RSD 15 million on account of forced collection and rescheduling of debts incurred between 1994 and 2009.

Tanjug managed not only to close 2013 with a positive balance despite all the difficulties, but also to cut its operating costs by six percent against the previous year, five percent lower than originally planned, Tanjug’s managing board said.

Photo Tanjug, S. Radovanovic (archive)