Ritzaus Bureau A/S, or Ritzau for short, sometimes stylized as /ritzau/, is a Danish news agency founded by Erik Ritzau in 1866. It collaborates with three other

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...

n news agencies to provide Nordic News, an

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the i ...

Scandinavian news service. It is based in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

and Lars Vesterløkke is editor-in-chief and CEO of the company.

History

Ritzaus Bureau was founded by Erik Nicolai Ritzau in Copenhagen on 1 February 1866 under the name Nordisk Centralbureau for Telegrammer. The agency received international news by telegram from Wolffs Bureau (now

Deutsche Presse-Agentur Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (dpa) is a German news agency founded in 1949. Based in Hamburg, it has grown to be a major worldwide operation serving print media, radio, television, online, mobile phones, and national news agencies. News is ava ...

, DPA) in Berlin. Erik Ritzau died in 1904. His son, Lauritz Ritzau, was CEO of the company from 1916 to 1958. The Ritzau family sold Ritzaus Bureau to the Danish newspapers in 1947. In 2007, DR became a co-owner of the agency. The company form was changed from an ''interessentskab'' (I/S) to an ''aktieselskab'' (A/S) in 2012.

Operations

Ritzau collaborates with three other

n news agencies to provide Nordic News, an

Scandinavian news service providing sixty stories daily. Ritzau is a member of the European Gruppe 39 collaboration.

Scanpix

In November 2017, Ritzau acquired Scanpix Denmark from Berlingske Media with effect from 1 January 2018. Scanpix is the leading Danish

stock photography Stock photography is the supply of photographs which are often licensed for specific uses. The stock photo industry, which began to gain hold in the 1920s, has established models including traditional macrostock photography, midstock photography, ...

agency in Denmark with more than 25 million pictures on stock in its digital and physical archives. It collaborates closely with sister companies in Norway, Sweden and Estonia.

Ownership

Ritzaus Bureau is today owned by 12 media groups; *

Dagbladet Børsen ''Børsen'' (full name: ''Dagbladet Børsen'') is a Danish newspaper specialising in business news published in Denmark. History and profile ''Børsen'' was founded in 1896 by merchant and editor Theodor Hans Carsten Green. In 1899, it was chang ...

* DR * Jysk Fynske Medier * Helsingør Dagblad * JP/Politikens Hus *

Dagbladet Information ''Information'' (), full name: ''Dagbladet Information'' (), is a Danish newspaper published Monday through Saturday. History and profile ''Dagbladet Information'' was established and published by the Danish resistance movement in 1943 during ...

Kristeligt Dagblad ''Kristeligt Dagblad'' is a Danish newspaper in Copenhagen, Denmark. History and profile ''Kristeligt Dagblad'' was established in 1896. It was an initiative of the Lutheran Inner Mission created to oppose radicalism and atheism. The paper is ...

* Lolland-Falsters Folketidende * Mediehusene Midtjylland * Sjællandske Medier * Skive Folkeblad * Nordjyske Medier

Awards

In January 1988, Ritzau journalist Jens Jørgen Espersen received the Cavling Prize for his covering of the Thorotrast scandal.

References

External links

Official website

(broken Oct. 2010) * Mass media companies based in Copenhagen Publishing companies established in 1866 News agencies based in Denmark Danish companies established in 1866 Companies based in Copenhagen Municipality {{Denmark-company-stub