2. Business performance

The German Press Agency can look back on another intense and challenging year in the news, marked by political turning points, social debates and ongoing international crises. In Germany, controversial discussions about migration, economic development and climate protection dominated the public discourse. Internationally, the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, geopolitical tensions between the major power blocs and the consequences of US policy remained the focus of coverage.

In this challenging environment, dpa has fulfilled its core task as a reliable news agency. Disciplined cost management, stable revenues in the core business and advances in strategic growth markets contributed to an overall solid business development. At the same time, the agency made significant strides in further developing its journalistic offerings and technological infrastructure, thereby moving closer to its key strategic goals.

Political polarisation and rapid technological change – particularly driven by the use of artificial intelligence – have placed high demands on journalistic work. Through forward-thinking planning, professionalism and close collaboration with customers, dpa met these demands regarding text, images, audio and video, once again making a significant contribution to providing the public with well-informed reporting.

In the reporting year, dpa has vigorously pursued the integration of artificial intelligence into editorial workflows and news platforms. The launch of the dpa-News Hub marked a major milestone. At the heart of this innovation is the AI Research assistant, which functions like an answer machine and draws exclusively on dpa information. Together with the current dpa-Newsfeed, as well as personalised desks, curated top topics and a feedback channel to the editorial team, the new application brings together numerous aspects of journalistic work.

The video sector is also one of dpa’s key strategic areas. In addition to a steadily growing market share in the digital video market, the agency has also developed a solution for the social media sector. Using dpa-Cleanfeeds, editorial teams receive ready-to-use video clips that can be posted directly to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and other platforms. Every day, dpa provides at least five videos in portrait format, including scripts. The content ranges from politics and sports to trending topics and issues that prompt discussions.

With the enhanced Infokanal, “Info & Verifikation”, dpa has expanded its offering to support newsrooms in complex news situations. The channel provides timely information on developing events and supports editorial teams in preparing and planning, even before the live coverage begins. Given the rapid spread of unverified content on social media, “Info & Verifikation” also provides targeted guidance on how to assess potentially false or misleading claims, as well as image and video content. Through integration with collaboration tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams, as well as direct access to dpa’s fact-checking team, the service enhances customers’ ability to verify information and contributes to quality assurance and trust building in the digital news landscape.