25.06.2024 – 12:58

dpa group continues on growth path in 2023 financial year - 75 years of independent agency journalism

Annual Report 2023

In its 75th year of existence, dpa continues to report positive business figures and has achieved a solid result. With the launch of a multimedia-producing newsroom in Berlin, the successful expansion of its video business and the development of an AI infrastructure, key milestones in the digital transformation were implemented. Despite the challenging market environment, group turnover increased slightly to 165.9 million euros (previous year: 165.5 million euros). At 104.3 million euros (2022: 103.2 million euros), the core company dpa GmbH also achieved revenue growth. The net annual profit amounted to 1.4 million euros (2022: 1.2 million euros).

"The diversification of the dpa group and its services is and remains the key to our success as an independent news agency and as a joint venture of the German media," says dpa CEO Peter Kropsch. "This is currently particularly evident in the excellent development of our video business. Video has immense future potential for dpa. We see the same in the field of AI: We want to use the editorial and entrepreneurial opportunities that this technology offers in the interests of our customers," Peter Kropsch continues.

"Our multimedia newsroom in the heart of Berlin has already proved to be a success story after just a few months. It is an excellent reflection of the requirements of decentralized and mobile working. This also makes us an attractive employer," says Editor-in-Chief Sven Gösmann. "Our new Rubix production system is now running at full steam. It allows dpa's editorial teams to work even faster and in a more networked way."

At the shareholders' meeting, dpa bid farewell to Senior Vice President and Head of Human Resources & Legal Affairs, Matthias Mahn (63), who did not extend his contract. Born in Hamburg, he had worked for dpa since 2002 and had been Senior Vice President since 2010. "After more than two decades, Matthias Mahn is leaving us as an expert who has laid important foundations in his areas. Matthias Mahn was a very successful and determined negotiator in many collective bargaining rounds. During the coronavirus pandemic years in particular, he paved the way for new work and mobile working. He also played a key role in the pioneering reform of the dpa provident fund. He successfully represented the agency on the supervisory boards of international organisations," says dpa CEO Peter Kropsch, who will now manage the company together with long-time Senior Vice President Andreas Schmidt in a two-person executive board instead of the previous three.

The German Press Agency can look back on a successful and trend-setting year. Important steps have been taken to prepare for the future. The ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, combined with the deterioration of the economic environment, have presented dpa with numerous challenges. Consistent cost management, stable sales in the core business and good results in the growth markets have ensured an overall positive balance sheet.

Once again, the high-revenue subsidiaries made a decisive contribution. The largest contribution came from news aktuell GmbH through the performance of the ots-Verbreitung and zimpel divisions. In 2023, dpa Picture-Alliance GmbH succeeded in achieving a slightly higher result than in the previous year in the highly competitive image market. Thanks to innovations in the area of data products and factchecking, dpa-infocom GmbH was also able to stabilize its turnover and generate a net profit for the year.

In an exceptionally strong year for news, dpa succeeded in decisively advancing the expansion of its video services. As a result, dpa has now become a full-service provider and is considered a premium partner by its TV customers. In addition, the dpa video team successfully offers live broadcasts and recently ensured a continuous digital and linear supply to customers during the historic flooding in southern Germany.

dpa's Marketplace strategy is also proving successful. More and more media professionals and communication experts are using the dpa-ID to access the numerous dpa products and the services of external Marketplace partners. With the help of the dpa-ID, users can choose between the various news services and other applications in order to complete their tasks faster and in a more networked way. The dpa-Marketplace now has more than 36,000 regular users.

With the publication of groundbreaking guidelines, dpa has addressed the topic of artificial intelligence at an early stage. The common understanding that AI is being actively used in the company, but that the final decision on what dpa publishes remains with people, continues to underlie all activities. With the help of an AI entrepreneur infrastructure, dpa is ensuring that knowledge, projects and expertise are channelled effectively.

dpa celebrates its 75th birthday in the current annual report. Young employees have their say and discuss the future of the agency. The book "Im Dienst der Nachricht - Die Geschichte der dpa" (Serving the news - The history of dpa) by Hamburg-based media historian Hans-Ulrich Wagner will be published in July. dpa has supported this independent research project and opened its archives to the author. Based on extensive research, Wagner describes the transformation of dpa into a modern, broad-based company and sheds light on a journalistic ethos that has been committed to independence and objectivity from the very beginning. The book is published by Frankfurter Societäts-Verlag - a founding shareholder of dpa. In addition, dpa's anniversary celebrations will take place on October 8 at the Museum for Communication in Berlin, centred around a news camp for schoolchildren.

About dpa:

The German Press Agency (dpa) was founded in 1949 and is one of the world's leading independent news agencies. dpa supplies media groups, companies and organisations with editorial content. This includes texts, photos, videos, graphics, radio reports and other formats. As an internationally active agency, dpa reports in seven languages. Approximately 1,000 journalists work from around 140 locations in Germany and abroad. Around 170 German media companies are dpa shareholders. The dpa editorial team works according to the principles laid down in the dpa statutes: independent of world views, commercial enterprises or governments. The central editorial office, headed by Editor-in-Chief Sven Gösmann, is located in Berlin. The executive board, headed by CEO Peter Kropsch, is based at the company's headquarters in Hamburg. The chairman of the supervisory board is David Brandstätter, Main-Post, Würzburg).

More at www.dpa.com (German, English, Spanish, Arabic)

Pressekontakt:

German Press Agency dpa
Jens Petersen
Head of Corporate Communications
phone: +49 40 4113 32843
pressestelle@dpa.com

Original-Content von: dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH, übermittelt durch news aktuell