“Cultivation of objective news and independence from any governmental, party-political and economic interest group will be the hallmark of the new agency.” This was the core sentence of the first message that the dpa sent to its customers on September 1, 1949. This year the German Press Agency is celebrating its 75th birthday with numerous campaigns and initiatives. “The dpa mark must have the trust of German newspapers, the German public and the world from day one,” the premiere message continued.
With these groundbreaking sentences, based on the basic values of independence and non-partisanship, Germany’s largest news agency began its operations. While the reports from the first day are considered lost, the agency’s archives show that on September 2, 1949, there were reports, among other things, on the attempt to cross the Atlantic with an amphibious jeep, as well as on the application of the Reichstag’s meeting rules for the first Bundestag sessions. Information about three deaths in the explosion of a grain distillery in Lippstadt was also received via telephony. In addition to many other reports from home and abroad, French press comments on the tenth anniversary of the outbreak of war were also documented.
The company dpa was founded in Goslar on August 18th through the merger of the German Press Service (dpd) and the German News Agency (DENA). Today the dpa is a successful group of companies with around 1,300 employees and an annual turnover of around 165 million euros. The dpa reports in seven languages and operates around 140 offices worldwide.
“Today we look back on 75 years of dpa reporting with pride and self-confidence,” says dpa CEO Peter Kropsch. “The principle of an independent news agency in the hands of around 170 media companies has proven itself over seven decades – even in times of digital transformation, artificial intelligence and disinformation. We are convinced: the dpa will continue to play a central role for an informed and democratic society in the future take.”
The dpa Group, with its more than ten subsidiaries and investments, today offers content and solutions for media, institutions and companies. The core products are basic and national services as well as video broadcasting and the ready-to-publish weblines, which are displayed directly on the customer portals. There are also infographic offers, radio news, fact-checking services and, increasingly, video content. The largest dpa subsidiaries are news aktuell with the successful PR services ots and zimpel, dpa-infocom, which produces, among other things, live tickers and data packages, and the photo marketplace picture alliance. The youngest subsidiary UseTheNews is a non-profit organization and is committed to news literacy and new journalistic offerings for young people.
“The dpa editorial team has been working according to established and proven principles for 75 years: independent, non-partisan and reliable. Today, of course, we report completely in multimedia and are ideally positioned for the digital markets,” says dpa editor-in-chief Sven Gösmann. “It has always been the dpa’s strength to aggressively embrace technical change and understand people’s usage behavior.”
The anniversary year is characterized by numerous actions and initiatives. The dpa subsidiary UseTheNews and its partners have proclaimed the “Year of News”. With numerous news camps for schoolchildren, social news desks, school projects and a large-scale communication campaign, the agency is committed to increasing news literacy, especially among young people. The actual dpa anniversary celebration will take place on October 8th in Berlin.
In addition, the book “In the service of news. The history of the dpa” has been published by the Frankfurt Societäts-Verlag. Historian Hans-Ulrich Wagner traces the path of the dpa from its founding in post-war Germany to the modern, broad-based media group. In addition, the exhibition “NACHRICHTEN – NEWS” will start on October 10th in the Berlin Museum for Communication, which will show numerous aspects of the work of Germany’s largest news agency.
About the dpa:
The German Press Agency (dpa) was founded in 1949 and is one of the world’s leading independent news agencies. dpa supplies media, companies and organizations with editorial offers. This includes texts, photos, videos, graphics, radio reports and other formats. As an internationally active agency, dpa reports in seven languages. Around 1,000 journalists work from around 140 locations at home and abroad. dpa’s shareholders include around 170 German media companies. The dpa editorial team works according to the principles set out in the dpa statute: independent of worldviews, commercial companies or governments. The central editorial office, headed by editor-in-chief Sven Gösmann, is located in Berlin. The management around its chairman Peter Kropsch works at the company headquarters in Hamburg. The chairman of the supervisory board is Daniel Schöningh (CEO Ippen-Mediengruppe, Munich).
More below www.dpa.com (German, English, Spanish, Arabic)