Society and media: The oldest Russian information agency ITAR-TASS celebrates its 110th anniversary

The oldest Russian news agency ITAR-TASS is celebrating its 110th anniversary: September 1, 1904 Agency began working under the name of St. Petersburg Telegraph Agency.

Agency was ready for the anniversary: in accordance with the decree of the President of Russia and other countries, there was a series of celebratory events designed to highlight the place of ITAR-TASS information on the world map. Photo exhibition, professional conferences and seminars, held in 2013, with the different parties have shown not only the history, but also the desire to meet all agency latest challenges of the modern media environment.

Today ITAR-TASS - is one of the largest manufacturers of news in Russia. Information Products agencies receive more than 5 thousand. Corporate subscribers in Russia and abroad, including more than 1,000 media 200 diplomatic missions, more than 250 financial companies and banks, more than 2,000 industrial enterprises, scientific and educational institutions, libraries.

Despite all the difficulties of post-Soviet period, the ITAR-TASS has retained its unique network of correspondents, which today has more than 70 foreign missions and nearly 50 regional centers and bureaus in Russia.

Unique information resource fund ITAR-TASS, founded in 1918, allows accompanying any news a relevant historical fact for a few seconds.

Total ITAR-TASS produces more than 100 products information about political, economic, social, cultural and sporting life of the country and the world in six languages​​: English, Russian, French, German, Spanish and Arabic. The daily volume of information transmitted by the agency is 300 flagship newspaper strips.

However, the ITAR-TASS agency - is not only a text. Even long before the term "multimedia", that is, the combination of information in different formats, it became widely known, TASS actively worked with visual information. "Photo ITAR-TASS" – is the oldest in Russia and the CIS agency specializing in the production of photo news. Photo gallery ITAR-TASS has more than 1 million archival photographs and negatives, it is the largest in Russia, the chronicle of Historical Foundation. In recent years, the ITAR-TASS develops other formats of visual information - the video and info graphics, which are taking a more prominent place in the product line of the agency.

ITAR-TASS has been actively involved in the activities of international and regional media organizations, including the World Congress of News Agencies (NAWC), the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) and news agencies of the countries in Asia and the Pacific (OANA).

In 1999 at the initiative of the ITAR-TASS is established the World Association of Russian Press (WARP) - the only worldwide association of Russian-speaking journalists.