Despite a continued decline in circulation figures in the print sector, the conversion of customers to the new pricing model completed in the previous year enabled turnover from traditional news services to remain largely stable, albeit with slight shifts within the services. By contrast, declines were recorded in the dpa audio service, the images division, Custom Content and, in particular, due to the absence of one-off income in the previous year.
In the image sector, the Aktuelle Bildfunk was also affected by the decline in circulation, but here too the new pricing model had the expected cushioning effect, with revenues remaining at the previous year’s level.
In the continuing difficult segment of the secondary marketing of images, it was not possible to maintain the previous year’s sales volume due to the partly dramatic fall in prices. A decline of just under 0.2 million euros was recorded here, which could not be avoided despite considerable efforts by the image sales department. From the perspective of the dpa group as a whole, however, image revenues were offset by the growth at dpa Picture-Alliance.
The Custom Content division failed to meet growth expectations and recorded a painful slump in sales, particularly in the second and third quarters, which also put pressure on margins in this cost-sensitive business. Production and cost structures were reviewed and changed in consultation with the customers very early in the year.
In contrast, two offers in the new product areas developed very positively. On the one hand, Digital Publishing recorded growth of around a quarter of a million euros, and the dpa video service also grew by almost the same amount, which is particularly pleasing given the efforts made in previous years. This was partly offset by the one-off revenue from the new products mentioned above, resulting in a year-on-year decline in revenue for this product group of 0.5 million euros.
Revenues from technology and transmission remained at the previous year’s level of 1.9 million euros, and revenues from the trading business, especially from the distribution of AP and dpa-AFX partner products, also remained stable at the previous year’s level of 4.1 million euros.
Other operating income declined by 0.5 million euros to 6.2 million euros. In addition to a number of minor factors, this decline is primarily attributable to the aforementioned integration of the digital editorial department into dpa GmbH and the associated elimination of intercompany service charges to dpa-infocom GmbH.