The year 2024 was once again marked by an exceptionally high volume of news. The political and social upheavals in Germany, the effects of climate change and international conflicts placed particular demands on dpa’s journalists. With detailed planning and close communication with its customers, dpa was able to meet the complex requirements in text, images, audio and video content and make a significant contribution to German and international media reporting.
The reporting year was also marked by dpa’s 75th anniversary. Together with its shareholders and customers, dpa celebrated three quarters of a century of eventful media history at Berlin’s Museum of Communication and emphasised the social importance of independent news journalism. Around 300 schoolchildren from various Berlin schools explored journalism and media at the “Your News, Your Future” news camp. Workshops, performances and various stands focused on social media and news consumption as well as disinformation and press freedom. Numerous media companies supported the all-day anniversary celebration. In addition, the academic publication “Im Dienst der Nachricht” (In the Service of the News) was launched in the Berlin newsroom. In it, media historian Hans-Ulrich Wagner tells the in-depth history of dpa since 1949.
In 2024, dpa implemented significant changes to its editorial department. First and foremost is the in-depth collaboration with the US-based AI company you.com. The company was founded by the globally recognised AI pioneer Richard Socher. The first major milestone was the creation of a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) model for dpa. This enables editors to research dpa content better and more easily by formulating their queries freely in human language, as they are accustomed to doing with other AI tools. dpa-news, the largest platform through which dpa provides its customers with news, now delivers text summaries, which is a significant improvement over the previous lists of articles. The application was made available to dpa customers as a new product in the first quarter of 2025. In addition, dpa has set up a three-person AI team within its IT department to vigorously drive forward the necessary developments in this area. The central platform, dpa-news, has been on the market in a completely revamped form since 2024, with numerous new functionalities.
Another milestone in the agency’s digital transformation is the use of the new Rubix production system in other areas of the editorial department. After the first dpa teams initially gained experience with Rubix, a large part of dpa’s production is now created in this way. Rubix continues to pursue a clear digital-first approach and enables networked and cross-organisational work between various dpa units.
dpa has also initiated an important development in the international arena, launching the Arabic-language Global Arabic News Service in collaboration with the American news agency AP (Associated Press). The service combines dpa’s European perspective with AP’s global reporting and serves to strengthen independent reporting in the Arab world. The editorial team is organised in a joint hub at dpa’s Cairo office.