2. Business performance

The German Press Agency can look back on a successful and ground-breaking year in 2023. ­Important steps were taken for the future of Germany’s largest news agency. However, the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, combined with the gloomier economic outlook, presented dpa with numerous challenges over the course of the year. The agency made promising progress and achieved many of its goals. Consistent cost management, stable sales in the core business and good results in the growth markets have ensured an overall positive balance sheet. Of particular importance here is the fact that all dpa customers, from newspaper publishers to public broadcasters and private radio stations, are now billed on the basis of an integrated print and online reach in the pricing model introduced in 2020. The resulting positive effects have made an important contribution to the agency’s economic stability.

Once again, dpa had to deal with an exceptionally busy year in terms of news. The parallel wars in Gaza and Ukraine and the resulting political and social events in Germany and the rest of the world were a major challenge for dpa’s journalists. Disputes among Germany’s governing coalition parties, the new heating laws and the effects of climate change have also taken up a lot of editorial capacity. With the help of detailed planning and in close cooperation with customers, dpa has met the complex expectations in text, images, sound and video and made a significant contribution to the successful reporting of German and international media.

dpa’s development in 2023 was shaped by three key topics: the move of the central editorial office into the new Berlin newsroom on Rudi-Dutschke-Straße, the finalisation of the Rubix production infrastructure and the anticipated impact of artificial intelligence and large language models on the news agency’s future work.

Since the middle of the year, dpa’s editorial heart has been beating in a new newsroom. Developed largely due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the premises in the former Axel Springer Passage reflect the current requirements of the industry: Multimedia, digital and decentralised remote working in a large news organisation. A studio in which TV quality video can be produced, as well as the ability to record professional podcasts and audio content, are among the key innovations. While the agency’s work was long dominated by text, the proportion of multimedia content is now growing steadily. With the new location, dpa has taken another decisive step on the path to “digital first”.

The newsroom, dominated on the first floor by the so-called atrium, is as much a meeting place as a workspace. This is where the exchange of ideas and information take place, where ideas and innovations are born. There is a creative, bright environment with shared desks, quiet rooms and a coffee bar. The newsroom is intended to be a place where employees can enjoy immersing themselves and shaping the modern journalism of the 21st century.

Parallel to the establishment of the newsroom, the development of the new Rubix production system has also made significant progress and was largely completed in 2023. While the sports and children’s news departments switched to Rubix during the year, the rest of the Basisdienst newswire followed suit in January 2024. Since then, the production of dpa content has been gradually converted to the new system. Rubix is more than just software. Rubix stands for the fundamental change in the work processes at dpa and places a clear focus on digital publishing. It enables cross-team and cross-organisational collaboration on a joint topic and saves time and resources when it comes to coordination.