Management Report
I. FUNDAMENTALS OF THE COMPANY
The purpose of the company is the collection, processing and distribution of news, images, audio, graphics and videos of all kinds. To this end, a close-knit network of editorial offices and correspondents’ bureaus in Germany and around the world guarantees that news is gathered impartially and independently of ideological, economic, financial or governmental influences. This is stipulated in the articles of association of dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH.
As Germany biggest news agency, dpa supplies all types of media with this material: newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and online services. Institutions, organisations and companies are also among the customers of Germany’s largest news agency and represent important sources of revenue, alongside the media.
dpa was founded in 1949 and is one of the world’s leading independent news agencies. Its shareholders comprise approximately 170 German media companies. dpa reports in German as well as in Arabic, English and Spanish. As an international agency, dpa helps to raise the profile of German topics and the German perspective abroad.
II. BUSINESS REPORT
1. Overall economic and sector-related conditions
The year 2025 continued to be marked by challenging economic conditions, but showed initial signs of stabilisation. After two years of declining economic output, the German economy returned to modest growth in the course of 2025. According to preliminary estimates, inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) rose by approximately 0.2% compared with the previous year. While this formally marked the end of the recession, overall economic momentum remained weak. Geopolitical uncertainties, interest rates that only fell slowly, and structural challenges in industry and the export sector continued to weigh on the economy.
The labour market remained robust in 2025, though without any significant growth momentum. The number of those in employment remained at a high level of around 46.0 million, but largely stagnated compared to the previous year. As in previous years, job growth occurred almost exclusively in the service sector, while industry and construction either reduced employment or kept it constant.
The media industry continued to undergo profound structural change in 2025. Traditional daily newspapers are still under considerable economic and journalistic pressure, particularly due to the ongoing decline in print usage and the increasing fragmentation of media consumption. While newspapers remain an important source of daily information for many people, the overall decline in print reach continues. At the same time, digital offerings continue to gain importance, both in terms of usage and monetisation.
E-paper editions have become a permanent fixture in the daily lives of many readers. A large portion of digital circulation is obtained through subscriptions, particularly for regional and local daily newspapers, where the e-paper remains the dominant digital distribution channel.
Paid content remains one of the industry’s most stable growth drivers. Paid content revenues for German consumer media currently amount to approximately 1.66 billion euros annually. This represents an increase of about 15% from January 2025 to January 2026. The market thus continues to grow significantly, even though the pace of growth has slowed slightly in a long-term comparison. Throughout the period dating back to 2013, the current growth rate represents the third-lowest value. It is notable that the revenue increase in 2025 is driven more by volume than in previous years: The growth stems primarily from a growing number of subscriptions and users, while price increases play a significantly smaller role than in previous years.
About two-thirds of paid content revenue continues to come from the newspaper business. For regional daily newspapers, the majority of this revenue still comes from e-paper subscriptions; only about 19% of digital revenue is generated through premium subscriptions or other paywall models. National newspapers are significantly further along in the digitisation of the reader market: For the first time, national titles are generating more than half of their digital reader market revenue through paywalls and online subscriptions. This is according to the market assessment by pv digest. According to the MA Pressemedien 2026 I from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Media-Analyse (agma), the vast majority of consumer magazines saw a decline in readership. Among the top 50 titles, only six actually gained readers, while major brands in some cases recorded heavy losses.