Target group orientation 

Benedikt Wenck: Today is about transformation, it’s about the role of journalism in society. This year we are celebrating 75 years of dpa, but also 75 years of Germany’s constitution, the Basic Law. The freedom of the press has a central place in the Basic Law, in Article 5. This is extremely relevant for our profession. At the same time, however, you can see that the entire industry is under pressure. Cuts are being made. Some media are fighting for their very survival. This raises the question of the role that journalism plays in our society.

Sven Gösmann: Journalism still has a function – even if this is sometimes denied. It still cre­ates an incredible amount of content and with this also depicts reality or an approximation of reality. I regard all of this as problematic and at the same time as a huge opportunity, because I was honestly quite bored with the journalism of recent decades. It was very ritualised, very entrenched, this knowledge. So dpa is also somehow a Boomer, isn’t it? It has grown up in this kind of certainty. And now we are where we are and we are uncertain. But sometimes that’s not the worst thing, because it makes us more flexible.

Benedikt: Do you have any examples of journalism that you all find great or interesting?

Ann-Marie Utz: For me, it’s mainly video formats. And fact-checking formats that educate young people and also teach them a certain level of media literacy. 

Hilal Özcan: I think that we need new perspectives or changes in the industry not just to explicitly reach young people. I think that applies to everyone and, above all, to differ­ent target groups. That’s why I think formats or approaches in journalism like the WDR morning podcast “0630” are cool, ones that are geared towards their target groups and consider: what is actually interesting them right now? And I think it’s super important not to assume sovereignty and report beyond the interests of the target groups.

Peter Kropsch: The packaging has to be such that you enjoy consuming it. It’s quite obvious that many people have a lot of fun consuming short form content. But you have to do it really well, because I think simplification is as attractive as it is risky.

Hilal: That’s true, simplification alone is not enough. If I tell a simplified story on TikTok about the security conference in Munich, but my target group doesn’t really care about the event, then simplification isn’t going to help. Packaging helps a lot. But more is needed in terms of content.

Sven: I believe that this is an area where we need to improve as a news agency. An important part of the transformation is to engage in more dialogue. For example, private radio stations are purely focus group-oriented when defining their musical identity. This means they are much closer to their listeners than we are with our products. We actually need groups that are in constant dialogue with us. I would really like to see a citizens’ panel of 500 people who can be surveyed regularly. 

Peter: Performance models where customers only have to pay when things are actually running in their digital offerings, that’s hugely honest. If the race is being run every day and you see that you’re doing well every day, then it goes up. If you’re not doing so well, then you have to ask yourself what your customer wants. That’s the hardest currency there is. And yes, that’s exactly the way Hilal described it.