The revenue of the entire Group amounted to 165.9 million euros last year, as DPA announced at its shareholders' meeting in Hamburg on Tuesday. In 2022, the figure was 165.5 million euros. DPA has been in existence for 75 years.
The core company Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH reportedly generated revenue of 104.3 million euros after 103.2 million euros in the previous year. The Group's net profit for the year amounted to 1.4 million euros - in 2022 it was 1.2 million euros.
Among other things, the year at DPA was characterized by the opening of a multimedia producing newsroom in Berlin, the expansion of the video business and the development of an infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI).
Several subsidiaries
DPA's subsidiaries made a decisive contribution to business performance. The largest contribution came from the News Aktuell business, for example with the "ots" distribution service. The photo subsidiary DPA Picture Alliance posted a slightly higher result. DPA-infocom generated a net profit for the year thanks to innovations in the area of data products and fact checks.
The Chairman of the DPA Management Board, Peter Kropsch, said according to the press release: "The diversification of the DPA Group and its services is and remains the key to our success as an independent news agency and as a joint venture of the German media." This is currently particularly evident in the development of the video business. Moving images have immense future potential for DPA. "We see the same in the area of AI: we want to use the editorial and entrepreneurial opportunities that this technology offers us in the interests of our customers," added Kropsch.
DPA Editor-in-Chief Sven Gösmann said: "Our multimedia newsroom in the heart of Berlin has turned out to be a success story after just a few months." It is an excellent response to the requirements of decentralized and mobile working. Gösmann also mentioned the new production system for the editorial team, Rubix. DPA's editorial teams work faster and are more closely networked as a result.
Downsized management
There were also changes to the management team. Matthias Mahn, Managing Director Human Resources & Legal, did not extend his contract, which was due to expire. The 63-year-old has worked for DPA since 2002 and has been Managing Director since 2010. His departure will reduce the size of the management team. DPA CEO Kropsch will now manage the company with longstanding Managing Director Andreas Schmidt.
The German Press Agency (AWP/DPA) was founded in 1949. It is one of the world's leading independent news agencies and supplies media, companies and organizations with editorial content. These include texts, photos, videos, graphics, radio reports and other formats.
Around 170 German media companies are shareholders of the DPA. Around 1000 journalists work at around 140 locations in Germany and abroad. The editorial team works independently of ideologies, commercial enterprises and governments. The central editorial office is located in Berlin, while the management is based at the company headquarters in Hamburg. (SDA/swi)
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Weimer succeeds Daniel Rademacher, who most recently managed the planning for the agency's new Berlin newsroom and is now overseeing the rollout of the new Dpa editorial system "Rubix". During this time, Rademacher was replaced in his role as head of news by Uta Winkhaus, who will return to the political newsroom in March.
Sophia Weimer currently works in the Dpa Panorama department. For several years, she was also head of organization for the Germany desk in the Berlin central editorial office. She is also the program manager for the agency's Berlin newsroom and manages the major events in the new collaboration areas there. For the time being, she will retain this role alongside her role as Head of News.
Sophia Weimer joined Dpa as a trainee in 2011. After studying journalism and medicine, the Paderborn-born journalist worked mainly in the Berlin regional office and the Panorama editorial team.
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Numerous media professionals have taken part in the fact-checking workshops launched in 2022, deepening their knowledge and exchanging views on topical issues, according to a statement on Wednesday.
The need remains great: Political propaganda and disinformation are unsettling many citizens, and fakes are becoming more sophisticated. More than ever, it is the task of the media to provide orientation - nationally, regionally and locally.
In close cooperation with the German Press Agency DPA and the Google News Initiative, Keystone-SDA is again offering fact-checking trainings. The trainings will take place in spring, with exact dates to follow soon. The trainings are again free of charge for editorial offices of Swiss media.
Catherine Gilbert, Verification Officer at Keystone-SDA, and Jan Ludwig, fact checkers and social media trainers at DPA, teach indispensable basics of digital research such as photo reverse search or video verification in basic training courses. In shorter in-depth units that can be easily integrated into everyday journalistic work, they explain research on Instagram and Tiktok. This time, the training team focuses on recognizing artificially generated media content such as deepfake videos, voices and texts.
"Credible information is of vital interest to our democratic society. That's why we are delighted to continue the digital verification training program for media professionals this year," says Jann Jenatsch, COO of Keystone-SDA. "Technological dynamics such as the use of artificial intelligence are making it increasingly difficult to unmask fakes. The planned in-depth training courses address such developments and aim to impart know-how and competence. The demand for this is very high."
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More than 120 PR professionals from companies and PR agencies in Switzerland took part in the survey. According to the survey, most communications managers are burdened by the fact that their department or agency has too few employees for the tasks at hand: 34 percent are frustrated by a lack of personnel resources. The second most frustrating factor is a lack of budget (33 percent). Equally grueling are the departmental boundaries that still exist: 33 percent of respondents are troubled by the garden-variety thinking on the job.
The high level of external determination in professional communications is also a burden: 31 percent of PR professionals are annoyed that their work is often defined by external factors. The perennial topic of "evaluating PR" also weighs on the mind, as 31 percent are most frustrated by the fact that success in their job cannot be clearly measured. Rigid corporate structures (24 percent) still put every fourth PR professional in a bad mood.
By contrast, there is less of a problem with the management itself or with one's own team. Only one in eight PR professionals is frustrated by incompetent bosses or unreliable team members (12 percent each). The relationship with marketing also gives little cause for frustration: only 9 percent are annoyed that management favors the marketing department. The least worrying aspect is external support: a meager 6 percent of respondents suffer from unreliable service providers.
The complete list of results
- Too few human resources 34%
- Budget too low 33%
- Too much gardener thinking 33%
- High external determination 31%
- Successes not clearly measurable 31%
- Rigid corporate structures 24%
- Lack of "being heard" by top management 19%
- Successes not valued 17%
- Too little time for further training 17%
- Poor work-life balance 16%
- Too little independent work 16%
- Low content 12%
- Incompetent or bad bosses 12%
- Unreliable team members 12%
- Management prefers marketing department 9%
- Unreliable service providers 6%
The logo of Germany's largest news agency retains the familiar three dots. In addition, the logos of subsidiaries have also been redesigned. In today's digital media world, it is crucial that the DPA brand continues to be clearly recognizable as the sender of verified news, a statement said. The new design is intended to help convey DPA's corporate values, which have been in place for more than 70 years: Reliability, Independence and Non-Partisanship.
The new corporate design - in contrast to the last adaptation about twelve years ago - was developed from a clearly digital perspective to meet the demands of today's media and communications industry. The design can be flexibly adapted to new circumstances and purposes. This includes the many uses in the corporate sector as well as product development and the daily provision of all DPA services. The new corporate design will be successively rolled out on all websites, platforms and products.
The new information and specifications are freely available on the web. There, the material can be used by all DPA employees, but also by external parties from the areas of design, development and partnerships. The design kit offers logos in all common file formats for download, information on typography, graphic design elements as well as information on visual language.
A media spokesperson in Switzerland earns an average of 7,500 Swiss francs per month, while the senior consultant at a PR agency makes 8,000 Swiss francs. This was the result of a survey conducted by the DPA subsidiary News aktuell and Faktenkontor among 286 PR professionals and managers from companies and agencies. Another result of the PR-Trendmonitor: Every fourth respondent is dissatisfied with his salary. Clerical staff in corporate communications departments receive an average of 700 francs less than media spokespersons, with a gross salary of 6,800 francs. In comparison, junior consultants in PR agencies earn another 600 francs less. Their average monthly salary is 6,200 francs. Overall, employees in the PR industry are largely satisfied with their salaries. Three quarters of PR professionals in companies and PR agencies consider themselves well paid. Because employees in PR agencies are better paid, they are slightly more satisfied with their salaries than their colleagues in corporate media offices. Thus, 76 percent from PR agencies are satisfied with their earnings. In the media offices, on the other hand, the figure is only 73 percent. However, one in four PR professionals consider themselves underpaid and are dissatisfied with their salary. The dissatisfaction due to salary is correspondingly higher among media positions (27 percent) and correspondingly lower among PR agencies (24 percent). (ots)
Source: PR-Trendmonitor 2018. Basis: survey of 286 PR professionals and executives. Survey period: February 2018. Method: online survey.
Together, Raufeld Medien and DPA want to realize multimedia projects for publishers and other customers. The projects, which include customer magazines, will remain separate from DPA Deutsche Presse-Agentur's own editorial offering. The publications are primarily conceived and designed by Raufeld Medien. DPA will focus on marketing and contribute individual content as needed. DPA writes this in a communiqué on Presseportal.ch.
The AP World News covers a selection of the global reporting of the U.S. news agency Associated Press for the German-speaking market. Verena Schmitt-Roschmann succeeds Peter Zschunke, who had led the development of the new newsroom on an interim basis since the beginning of 2013, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA on Tuesday. Zschunke is now returning to DPA's net world editorial department as chief correspondent at his own request. She will leave the DPA Group in the summer of 2013 and move to the Evangelical Press Service EPD as chief of staff.
After working at the news agency AFP and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Verena Schmitt-Roschmann worked at AP Germany from 1993 to 2010. She then worked for the DAPD agency and the weekly newspaper Der Freitag. In January 2013, she joined the DPA Group.
AP Weltnachrichten is distributed in Germany by DPA (Werbewoche.ch reported). To market the service in Austria, dpa has concluded an agreement with the Austrian news agency APA. In Switzerland, the service is marketed by the Swiss Dispatch Agency SDA. (SDA)
AP Weltnachrichten is distributed in Germany by DPA, which has held exclusive marketing rights for Associated Press content in German-speaking countries since February 1, 2013 (Werbewoche.ch reported). For the marketing of AP texts in Switzerland, DPA has concluded an agreement with the Swiss Dispatch Agency SDA.
AP World News includes a "best of" the Associated Press' global coverage, DPA announced Tuesday. AP World News will be headed in its initial phase in Berlin by Peter Zschunke, former deputy editor-in-chief and head of the foreign desk of the then AP Germany.
The exclusive marketing rights for AP content also include the AP European News Service in English in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the AP European Photo Stream in Germany and Austria. (SDA)
In particular, DPA employees and their boss were praised for developing an interactive customer news portal. This enables their agency to work closely with publishers of both online and print newspapers, EANA announced in a communiqué on Thursday. The prize, worth 1,000 euros, will be presented to DPA at the EANA General Assembly in Lisbon, Portugal, at the end of September.
DPA employs 1,200 people worldwide and has offices in over 100 countries around the world. It offers its news service in German, English, Spanish and Arabic. (SDA)