Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (abbreviated as dpa; ) is a German

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency ma ...

founded in 1949. Based in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, it has grown to be a major worldwide operation serving print media, radio, television, online, mobile phones, and national news agencies. News is available in seven languages, among them

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, English,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. The dpa is the largest press agency in Germany with headquarters in Hamburg and the central editorial office in Berlin. It is represented abroad at 83 locations and maintains 12 state services in Germany with the corresponding offices. In 2023, the agency had 716 employees and a turnover of €104.3 million. Independence of ideologies, businesses and governments, non-partisanship, and reliability (accuracy always comes before speed) have been announced as the main principles of the agency management and editorial policy. For decades, almost all German radio stations and newspapers with their own editorial offices have been affiliated to the dpa, meaning they can report on global events without having to maintain their own correspondents and editors. In 2009, several independent regional newspapers, including one of the largest regional publications, the '' Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'', temporarily dropped the dpa service, but the contract was resumed in December 2012. This large-scale influence of the dpa over public opinion has often been met with criticism. The agency is member of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA).

History

The dpa was founded as a co-operative between the ''Deutsche Nachrichtenagentur'' (en: German News Agency) (Dena), the ''Deutsche Pressedienst'' (en: the Germany Press Service), and the ''Süddeutsche Nachrichtenagentur'' (Südena) (en: the South German News Agency) in

Goslar Goslar (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the Goslar (district), district of Goslar and is located on the northwestern wikt:slope, slopes of the Harz ...

on 18 August 1949. The co-operative became a

limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of ...

(de:

GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...

) in 1951. Fritz Sänger was the first

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

. He served as

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

until 1955 and as editor-in-chief until 1959. The first transmission occurred at 6 a.m. on 1 September 1949. In 1986, the dpa founded Global Media Services (GMS), which bought its competitor ''Globus Kartendienst GmbH'' (en: Globus Cartography Service GmbH) in 1988. In 2010, the editorial headquarters moved to the historical newspaper district of Berlin, the location of the former newsroom for

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. The corporate headquarters remain in Hamburg, along with subsidiaries news aktuell GmbH, dpa-media technology GmbH, and dpa-infocom GmbH.

Services

German language services

''dpa main wire'' and ''dpa regional services'' publish around 1,100 articles daily from all over the world in the politics, business, sports and panorama sections. An average of 1,000 photos are offered to customers daily via ''Bildfunk''. dpa customers are offered these services for a flat monthly fee (graded according to the size of the medium).

Foreign language services

dpa foreign language services are available in English, Spanish and Arabic. The English service is produced in Berlin and Sydney, the Spanish service in Madrid and Berlin, the Arabic service has its main editorial office in Cairo. In 2008, the dpa announced plans to launch a bilingual news service in Turkish and German in 2009. This service aimed to provide information relevant to the "information needs of citizens of Turkish origin in Germany", as emphasised in a statement. The service was discontinued after a period of nine months. The dpa cooperates with other news agencies, including Associated Press (AP),

Austria Presse-Agentur Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, DPA-AFX Business News, and Schweizerische Depeschenagentur.

Spin-offs and co-operations

The German Press Agency (dpa) works extensively with a range of agencies in gathering and disseminating news, including foreign companies such as the Austria Press Agency and the Swiss Depeschenagentur. With the Austria Press Agency, the dpa runs the ''dpa-AFX'' business news agency. Since 2013, dpa has been collaborating with the Associated Press news agency from the USA, marketing AP services in German-speaking countries. The late Head of dpa Picture, Reiner Merkel, established ''Picture Alliance'', a 100% dpa subsidiary, in 2002. The online platform was created as a picture archive platform for use by six leading picture agencies: akg-images, picture agency Huber, dpa picture services, kpa photo archive, Okapia, and Picture Press. Now, over two hundred partner agencies sell their image, video, and illustration material through the dpa-Picture-Alliance. Other subsidiaries of dpa include ''dpa infographic GmbH'', ''dpa-IT Services GmbH'', ''Rufa Rundfunk-Agenturdienste'', ''Agencia de Noticias dpa España SL'', ''dpa English Services GmbH'', ''news aktuell GmbH'', and ''dpa-infocom GmbH.'' In 2015, dpa also initiated the ''next media accelerator'' with a related fund.

Criticism

Market Position and Manipulation

As the dominant news agency in Germany, the dpa has significant influence over public opinion. Its main competitors within the same market area include the Germany branches of foreign press agencies ''Agence France-Presse'' and ''Thomson Reuters''. Domestic competitors include the Evangelical Press Service, the Catholic News Agency and the Sports Information Service. There have been ongoing accusations of the dpa abusing its power within the marketplace, using its position for agenda-setting and to manipulate the general public. These sentiments have led to isolated recommendations for restrictions to be placed on the agency's power. Such concerns have been reported as early as 1970 with articles published in ZEIT and SPIEGEL generating discussion on the agency's close affiliation to the government and of the dpa colouring its reporting.

Structure

As early as 1969, the dpa has been subject to critical scrutiny due to its structure. Journalist Stefan Zickler included the company as part of his criticism of the structure of the German Press in a publication in which he challenged the belief that total privatisation of the agency by its around 170 shareholders prevent manipulation of its content. As a company owned by around two hundred shareholders who are responsible for ensuring its independence, the total privatization can be seen as a drawback, as it prevents any state and majoritarian involvement. Furthermore, the ownership also places great power in the hands of the Editor-in-Chief, who can shape the media landscape by controlling how information is disseminated. This potential for conformity among journalists is of great concern.

Fact checking

After the departure of its founder Fritz Sänger, the German Press Agency came under public criticism several times for spreading unchecked false reports. The most notable examples include a report on the death of Soviet leader

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...

on 13 April 1964 in which the agency fabricated a quote from the then Soviet Premier, Alexei Kosygin, regarding the reunification of Germany in December 1966. In subsequent years, the agency was forced to apologise for inaccurate reports regarding the protests against the G8 summit in Heiligendamm (2007) as well as the news of a scandal involving the then Federal Economics Minister

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg (born 5 December 1971), known professionally as Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, is a Germany, German businessman, journalist, podcaster, an ...

(2009). The role of the dpa in the Bluewater affair in 2009 led to new internal regulations regarding the sources of the disseminated news. The Otto Brenner Foundation conducted a large-scale study in March 2010, led by Hans-Jürgen Arlt and Wolfgang Storz. This study, named "Business Journalism during Crisis - The Mass Media's Handling of Financial Market Policy", evaluated the working procedures of the dpa from spring 1999 to autumn 2009. The ultimate conclusion of the study was that German business journalism failed to provide proficient and informative coverage of the financial market and its related policies prior to the onset of the global financial market crisis. The evaluation of the dpa's contribution to financial market policy journalism was described as being "highly deficient" and that it gave a sense of confusion rather than offering orientation. The editor-in-chief of the dpa rejected these criticisms, citing the selectivity of the articles examined as a reason why the results were not representative.''Forschen nach Belieben: dpa erläutert Berichterstattung zur Finanzkrise''. In: . presseportal.de accessed am 30. March 2019.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies based in Hamburg Mass media in Hamburg News agencies based in Germany Mass media companies established in 1949 1949 establishments in West Germany