Goodbye Desk, Hello Reactivity Pool AFP turns to compulsion

Management unveiled to trade unions on June 15 its project for a “Reactivity Pool”. After our first look at the document we believed it was a feathered nest of sorts for text journalists returning from abroad following the expatriation reform that would give them privileged access to missions compared to a simple post on the French Editorial Desk. But we were mistaken. The project hides a real revolution: the programmed death of the Desk and the end of principle that journalists volunteer for missions – we risk becoming toy soldiers moved about at any moment.

Once the reform is in place, no more journalists will be appointed to the Desk. It becomes a closed entity of sorts that will wither away as people leave for other posts or retirement. All French text journalists (expect sport) without a new post at the end of their current production or management post will be sent to the “Reactivity Pool”.

What’s management game? Avoiding the need to find volunteers for missions, whether they are temporary replacements, reinforcements or special cells. Everyone appointed to the “Reactivity Pool” can be ordered elsewhere in Paris (but not to French regional bureaus or abroad) for a period of up to six months.

One-way flexibility

In addition to the time spent finding volunteers management also spoke about the need to constantly redo the work schedules when a desker is deployed on a mission.

But when not on mission the Pool journalists will by default be put on the schedule of what is today the French Editorial Desk to carry out editorial shifts. And when they are mobilized? Well, the schedules will have to be redone, management finally admitted.

The conclusion is clear: the real goal of the “Reactivity Pool” is to gain the power to order when and where journalists work at the drop of a hat.

This will allow management to achieve a second, unstated, objective: to reduce to a minimum the use of temporary staff (CDDs). Penny-wise, pound foolish as temporary contracts are an important point of entry for young talented journalists.

Desk editors are perfectly aware that our profession requires being reactive. They work varying shifts on a desk open from 7 am to midnight, seven days a week. They are used to adjustments to work schedules and carrying out missions.

Flexibility is already there.

Today, the schedules are made taking into account the needs of each. When last-minute changes are made, they are usually requested but not imposed unless a case of force majeure.

Relegation

The project has provoked concern among the journalists who currently work on the Desk. With a pool of journalists dedicated to carrying out missions, there is a real risk that deskers will have fewer opportunities to carry out missions like they have done for many years – on a voluntary basis. And with that a degradation of their skills, a less varied professional experience and few opportunities.

The social audit carried out by Sextant noted that the Desk is viewed “as a path of relegation while awaiting future mobility or for journalists deemed unsuitable, leading to a lack of recognition, career advancement prospects, and meaning in their work.” Management’s project reinforces that lack of recognition in a service which has already faced several reorganizations.

The Desk plays an essential role in the agency: it is the last step before the validation of dispatches and their arrival at clients, the final safety net to avoid errors. Management’s project programs a slow death of the Desk in favor of the “Pool Reactivity” whose priority is clearly to support production. This relegates edition to a secondary role, a conscious degradation of the stature of this work. Another risk is that if too many people are dedicated to missions then the quality of the copy will suffer.

For deskers the message is clear: you’ve become second-class journalists.

This reform risks creating additional sufferance.

Forced flexibility, work-life balance threatened

With the “Reactivity Pool” management is burden shifting. Management shifts its burden of having to carry out organizational work onto staff by forcing them to be fully flexible. It further devalues the work of editors and puts the work-life balance of journalists at risk. Journalists are neither expendable resources nor toy soldiers to be deployed at will. Respect for people and for their work is non-negotiable.

SUD requested – and obtained – a postponement of the presentation of this project to staff representatives in the Works Council (CSE). Initially scheduled for June 19, it will now take place at the Works Council meeting on July 3. This provides valuable time to mobilize the entire editorial staff against the project.

Paris, June 18, 2026

SUD-AFP (Solidarity-Unity-Democracy)