There was certainly no shortage of news events during 2025. With over 1,560 breaking news reports, dpa recorded its highest figure to date – approximately 160 more than in the previous year. US President Donald Trump was by far the most frequently mentioned individual, with 225 breaking news reports. Around a quarter of these concerned his trade policy. In recent history, no other individual is known to have garnered anywhere nearly as many breaking news mentions – in 2025 alone, Trump generated significantly more breaking news reports than Joe Biden did during his entire four-year term and Barack Obama during his eight-year term. The Vatican provided the reason for two of the extremely rare breaking news reports – one on the death of Pope Francis on April 21 and the second on the election of the Amer­ican Robert Prevost as the new pope on May 8. When it came to the coverage of German domestic politics, the most significant topics were the federal election and the election of Friedrich Merz as chancellor on his second attempt.

Whereas I would previously have needed at least half an hour to research the facts for this first paragraph, it’s now significantly easier: All I had to do was enter the prompt “What were the biggest news stories in 2025 in dpa’s reporting?” into our dpa-News Hub platform, which was launched in 2025. It already has almost 6,000 users and has quickly gained traction among our customers. The launch of the platform has been a significant step for us because it “marries” two principles: first-class news agency journalism and technology that makes answers to even complex topics available immediately.

Expanding dpa’s capacity to act in an information landscape driven by artificial intelligence is a central strategic goal of the company. dpa’s range of services and products with an AI impact is just one of several areas we are advancing. With the dpa-iq project, we will move to the next phase of expansion in 2026 – linking dpa content with customer content.

In the newsroom, traditional journalistic responsibility remains the guiding principle. But in the future, our teams will work with AI support. For example, in our new editorial system RUBIX, when compiling content and accessing the dpa archive. dpa’s employees will acquire the necessary skills through training, while also being prepared for both the risks and the opportunities involved.

dpa ended the year 2025 with a solid result. At 1.9 million euros, the consolidated net profit is exactly within the targeted range. The group turnover saw a slight decline. However, the operating performance increased, reflecting the total revenue from our activities, including other operating income. This has grown significantly due to income from the enforcement of image rights.

The enforcement of content rights has now become a central issue for dpa. Content licensing is the sole business model in our core news services business. It is the foundation of our existence, and dpa is facing several challenges simultaneously in this area.

The rapid market entry of AI companies is putting pressure on dpa to adapt its contractual framework to these new conditions. Under current EU law, AI companies can “scrape” content from digital offerings for data mining if the operator does not prohibit this in a machine-readable manner. This poses the risk that dpa content included in our customers’ offerings could flow to OpenAI & Co. – free of charge and without any possibility of en­forcing content rights.

The dpa supervisory board has addressed this issue intensively during several meetings. Ultimately, it adopted a pricing model that covers the two most common use cases at present: the transfer of processed dpa content by our customers to AI companies and the provision of such content by waiving the machine-readable copyright notice.

dpa also faces numerous infringements due to the unauthorised use of images in the digital space. Here, dpa, together with service providers, operates a well-documented procedure for enforcing rights. Another area of legal protection that dpa addressed in 2025 was the use of dpa content for media monitoring.

We are convinced that the vigorous and comprehensive enforcement of content rights is a prerequisite for the long-term survival of news agencies. Together with the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), dpa is contributing to the ongoing development of the legal framework for the use of journalistic content in Europe. dpa chairs the EANA Copyright Committee.

In dpa’s core media market, the consolidation process continued in 2025, with previously independent daily newspaper publishers joining larger corporate groups. Medienholding Süd, part of SWMH, transferred to the Neue Pressedruck Group in Ulm. At ProSiebenSat.1, the Italian company Media for Europe became the majority owner. In the digital sector, the first signs of the use of AI-generated summaries on major platforms became apparent as traffic to certain sections declined. In this context of transformation, dpa supports our media customers’ efforts to increase efficiency in a variety of ways. A “print working group” handles the customised delivery of content for printed daily newspapers to optimise the workload for customers. For new formats, dpa provides so-called video clean-feeds. These enable the production of individual posts featuring dpa video content for social media platforms.

In 2025, intensive work was carried out on product innovations for corporate and institu­tional customers. The “dpa-Select” product, traditionally rooted in the corporate sector and providing a tailored selection of news for decision-makers, is currently being completely overhauled and will be launched in 2026 as “dpa-Explore.” And news aktuell, dpa’s largest subsidiary, is also expanding its offerings to include the option of releasing video statements on current events as “na Voices.”

dpa-infocom has significantly expanded its verification program. In light of the risk of losing individual contracts, the company is expanding its range of services both when it comes to the verification of information and to the related training. Verification expertise combined with technical know-how has gone into the development of “dpa-Checkmate.” Here, dpa supports TV talk shows with real-time fact-checking, which can be incorporated into the ongoing discussion within a matter of seconds. A pilot project with a major broadcaster was successfully completed in early 2026.

These are just a few examples of product innovations that we are using to support our customers in their own transformation.

Through the #UseTheNews initiative, which we spearhead together with approximately 60 partners from media, foundations and institutions, we are dedicated to fostering news and information literacy among young audiences. Following the major “Year of News” project, we are pursuing two goals for the coming years: to develop news formats that make young adults say, “Yes, this is useful for my life right now.” At the same time, we are working with policymakers to ensure that all school children have access to a reliable program on news and information literacy by 2030. Of dpa’s numerous initiatives, #UseTheNews is likely to be the one with the greatest potential for sustainability.

Our heartfelt thanks for a successful reporting year in 2025 goes to the employees through­out the dpa group. We also wish to express our warm thanks to our customers – who are often also owners – and who are walking this path together with us.