In parallel with the newsroom move, dpa is continuing to drive forward the development of its Rubix modular and multimedia production system. Two editorial divisions, children’s news and sports, are now using the versatile software in live operation, providing valuable insights for further roll-out planning. The first interim conclusion: Rubix proved its worth at the World Cup in Qatar – a major event that placed the highest demands on a news agency’s production system in terms of stability and speed. Rubix is essentially programmed by dpa’s own development team. Roll-outs in other areas are imminent. The first interested agencies from Germany and abroad are looking at the application.
A major milestone for dpa and its journalistic relevance is the establishment of the European Newsroom (enr) in Brussels, from where a community of 18 European news agencies enhance their reporting from Europe’s capital. The European Newsroom has 45 workstations at two locations for correspondents from the participating agencies. In addition to dpa, AFP (France), ANSA (Italy), AGERPRES (Romania), and HINA (Croatia) form the core group and steering committee. The project is supported by the EU.
The dpa group’s personnel make-up saw several changes during the year under review. For example, the agency reorganised its setup in southern Germany. In addition to his role as regional bureau chief for Bavaria, Roland Freund has now also taken over as head of the regional editorial office in Baden-Württemberg. The English service is led by a new dual leadership consisting of the previous editorial director Helen Maguire and Robin Powell. Annette Meinke will take over as head of the advice editorial department. Ira Kugel is the new managing director of dpa-infografik GmbH. Jirka Albig has become managing director of dpa-infocom GmbH.
The areas of video and audio are long-term and important growth areas for the agency. The newly created position of head of video has been filled by Marc-Oliver Kühle, who moved from Bild TV to dpa. His task is to develop suitable offers for TV customers and digital publishers. dpa also gained additional expertise in the audio sector. David Krause joined the agency as editorial head of podcast. He now oversees new and exciting podcast formats. In addition to the commissioned series “Troll Army – Russia’s War on the Internet,” for example, the news show “Stand der Dinge” was published (commissioned by Podimo).
The digital strategies of many media companies focus on attracting new subscriptions. To support this goal, the dpa-Themenwelten have been launched. Based on insights from the DRIVE (Digital Revenue Initiative) project, in which around 20 publishing houses share usage data with each other, dpa provides selected content that both helps increase digital subscriptions and encourages people to remain loyal to their subscription. Content from the areas of health, food, fitness, family, real estate, and mobility have achieved the most success here.
In its curation work for Meta’s Facebook News offering, dpa was able to gain valuable experience for digital business models. The agency has shown that it is able to set up and implement temporary projects quickly. These so-called digital pop-up stores are characteristic of the fast-moving Internet economy and successfully expand dpa’s service portfolio.
The dpa fact-checking department has shown excellent development. With the help of various projects and initiatives, the agency has once again intensified its fight against disinformation. WhatsApp users can now ask “Is this real?”, for example. Fact checkers from dpa provide answers – on behalf of Meta. The users’ submissions tend to focus on the topics of war, destruction, and propaganda. Often, the misleading information comes from friends and family. In addition, dpa is involved in the cross-national EU project GADMO (German-Austrian Digital Media Observatory), which links fact-checking organisations from Germany and Austria with academia and makes fact checks publicly available. In addition, dpa has implemented the training programme Faktencheck22 – with the support of the Google News Initiative. Together with the APA Austria Presse Agentur and the Swiss Keystone-SDA, dpa trains editors from media companies in the three countries on various fact-checking topics. Last but not least, dpa is driving European networking in this area. Fact-checking organisations from more than 30 countries have agreed to a code that defines standards for methodology, ethics, and transparency. The dpa actively supported the development of this code.
Together with partners from the media industry and civil society, dpa has continued its commitment to promoting news literacy among young people. The #UseTheNews project, which has established itself in the three years since its launch, now operates as a non-profit limited liability company. The goal of the new dpa subsidiary is to work with journalists from participating media companies to develop offerings for young people that meet the needs of this target group. Studies, workshops, and communities round out #UseTheNews’ field of activity.