ITAR-TASS, Russian oldest and largest photo archive

Established in 1904, the ITAR-TASS News Agency is one of the world's largest international information agencies.

The successor to the Soviet TASS news agency, it was renamed in 1992, when Russia proclaimed its sovereignty following the collapse of the USSR. It has retained its status of being the state central information agency.

Previously available to only a select few, the agency's resources are now available to anyone who is interested, both within and outside Russia; the mass media, academic institutions, organizations and private individuals.

To better serve a rapidly growing number of subscribers, the agency has developed a new set priorities designed to streamline and improve key aspects of its operation: how topics are selected, expansion of news coverage, and timely delivery of news on the wire.

As the very nature of news production continues to evolve, the agency will continually make use of the very latest available technologies in order to make real-time news distribution faster and more efficient.

ITAR-TASS relies on a widespread net of correspondents. Currently, it has more than 130 bureaus and offices in Russia and abroad. ITAR-TASS also cooperates with more than 80 foreign news agencies. ITAR-TASS' editorial and other desks process information from correspondents, check and analyze facts, and translate into five foreign languages.

ITAR-TASS has accumulated a rich body of experience throughout the course of its 100-year history. The agency's widespread network of correspondents, its modern means of distributing and storing information, and a well-oiled mechanism of cooperation between its editorial, reference and reporter departments, all enable ITAR-TASS to provide quick and full coverage of all kinds of events shaping Russia and the world.

ITAR-TASS offers today 45 round-the-clock news cycles in six languages and more than 40 information bulletins.

The agency also operates a photo service, the largest of its kind in Russia. This unique service offers pictures of the latest breaking developments, available for prompt transmission in digital form. Clients also have access to an extremely rich photo archive dating back to the beginning of the 20th century.

Also available is the INFO-TASS electronic data bank, which contains all agency materials produced since 1987, multimedia products, and unique reference books on Russia and other CIS member states, which are regularly updated. On a daily basis, ITAR-TASS produces and transmits to its subscribers around the world materials that can cover 300 newspaper pages.

It has 74 bureaus and offices in Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and 65 bureaus in 62 other countries.

The Agency is among the participants in the 31st Executive Board Meeting (EBM) and the 25th Editorial-Technical Experts Group (ETEG) Meeting to be run in Tehran from November 13 to 17, 2009.

The Mehr News Agency is the host of the five-day event which is to be attended by more than 40 representatives of 18 governmental and non-governmental news agencies from the Asia-Pacific states, including Russia, Japan, China, S. Korea, Indonesia, India, and Malaysia.

On the theme of “A quest for global media balancing”, the meeting will be officially inaugurated on Sunday morning at Tehran Enqelab Hotel, managing director of the Mehr News Agency, also president of Tehran’s EBM and ETEG meetings said.

According to Parviz Esmaeili, the meeting is aimed at closing gaps between the world media.