APA – Austria Press Agency presented an increase in result and revenue at its general meeting on Wednesday. Consolidated revenue totalled EUR 66 million in 2019 compared with EUR 63.71 million in 2018. The growth generated in revenue was therefore 3.6 percent.

APA-Group’s operating result (EBIT) was EUR 2.16 million in 2019 compared with EUR 1.25 million in 2018. The result from ordinary activities (EBT) totalled EUR 2.14 million compared with EUR 0.62 million in 2018 (for direct comparison, each adjusted for non-recurring sales proceeds resulting from an exchange of a 50 percent stake in Keystone for 30 percent of the news agency group merger Keystone-SDA in 2018).

The average number of full-time equivalent staff employed by the Group was 509 compared with 519 in 2018.

Issues and personnel-related matters in 2019

Elections, news tech, and an important anniversary: the 2019 financial year posed a particular challenge for the APA editorial team with the EU elections and the early elections to the National Council following the ´Ibiza video‘. Both elections were supported by a new editorial service for automated text generation on the election results (Automated Content) as well as by a significantly expanded range of live streams and live blogs. The focus on moving images was manifested in the high number of Austria Video Platform (AVP) hits.

Subsidiaries APA-OTS and APA-DeFacto have combined their services for the dissemination of information and media monitoring in the new interface ‘PR-Desk’ a one-stop shop for communication professionals that went online in February 2020. As an „issues space“, APA-Press Centre has expanded its existing range of services for holding multimedia press conferences to include special facilities and infrastructure for external events and workshops.

APA-IT opened a new data centre in Switzerland as part of the technology cooperation agreement with Keystone-SDA, and the Gentics division was awarded the contract for the web portal of the future Swiss e-government solution. Since 2019, APA-Online Manager (AOM) has been available for mobile use via native apps for iOS and Android.

In the scope of the 80th anniversary of the independent news agency alliance Group 39 (1939-2019), the statutes were reformed under the Austrian presidency, resulting in the addition of new members, the two independent news agencies dpa (Germany) and PA Media Group (United Kingdom).

Johannes Bruckenberger has been APA’s new editor-in-chief since January 2019. Changes in management were also undertaken in subsidiaries: Julia Wippersberg has been managing director of APA-OTS GmbH since 2019; Clemens Prerovsky and Gerald Innerwinkler are the new management duo of APA-IT GmbH. Furthermore, Clemens Prerovsky, managing director of APA-IT GmbH, and Klemens Ganner, managing director of APA-DeFacto GmbH, were appointed as authorised representatives and members of APA eG’s Management Board.

Chairman of the APA Management Board Clemens Pig and APA Managing Director Karin Thiller pointed to the systemic relevance of independent news agencies: „APA-Group’s strong growth in revenue and result in 2019 gives us the necessary momentum for the company’s likely stable development in this time of pandemic. In view of the exceptionally high demands and challenges during the corona crisis, APA has been fulfilling its fundamental mission as a cooperative for the country’s media and institutions very satisfactorily, both at the editorial as well as technological level. As a national independent news agency, we are a well-rehearsed operational organisation, guaranteeing a reliable news flow and stable IT systems around the clock.“

APA Chairman of the Board of Directors Hermann Petz and Supervisory Board Chairman Alexander Wrabetz described the APA-Group as a „national infrastructure company for news and media technology and Austria’s leading service provider for communication professionals. We thank all of the APA-Group companies‘ employees for the successful 2019 financial year and for their extraordinarily high level of commitment and important contribution during the corona crisis.“

Extension of mandates for the board of directors and supervisory board of Austria Press Agency

In the general meeting, the mandates of Herbert Achleitner (Oberösterreichische Nachrichten), Wolfgang Fellner (Österreich), Martin Hagenstein (Salzburger Nachrichten), Hubert Patterer (Kleine Zeitung) and Brigitte Wolf (ORF) were confirmed on the board of directors for another three years. Thomas Kralinger (Kurier), Wolfgang Eder (Oberösterreichisches Volksblatt) and Wolfgang Zekert (Österreich) will retain their mandates on the APA Supervisory Board for another three years. Thomas Kralinger was unanimously re-elected as vice chairman of the Supervisory Board of APA eG for another three years. The executive committee of the Supervisory Board therefore continues to comprise the following members: Alexander Wrabetz (ORF) as chairman and Thomas Kralinger (Kurier) as well as Markus Mair (Styria) as vice chairmen of the Supervisory Board. The executive committee of the Board of Directors comprises Hermann Petz (Tiroler Tageszeitung) as chairman and Thomas Prantner (ORF) and Eugen A. Russ (Vorarlberger Nachrichten) as vice chairmen and Clemens Pig (APA) as CEO of APA and Chairman of APA’s Management Board.

Current situation in the pandemic year 2020

From today’s perspective, APA is expected to show stable development with a balanced result in the 2020 financial year; an overall forecast for the remainder of the year is not possible at this time. With the beginning of the corona pandemic, the focus on digital product development was further intensified and included digital press conferences at APA-Press Centre, live blogs concerning corona by the APA editorial staff, new e-paper services in the digital Austria Kiosk, digital services from APA-Campus through webinars as well as APA’s new fact-checking service for the verification of content, especially from digital space.

APA – Austria Press Agency

APA – Austria Press Agency is the national news agency and Austria’s leading information service provider. It is owned by Austrian daily newspapers and ORF. APA-Group comprises the cooperatively organised news agency and three wholly-owned subsidiaries and operates as a news agency, picture agency and in the areas of information management and information technology. The editorial offices of APA ensure real-time news services in word, image, graphics, audio and video, while the subsidiaries provide distribution, research and knowledge management services as well as information technology solutions.

Der Beitrag For APA-Group growth in 2019 and a stable position in the pandemic year 2020 erschien zuerst auf APA-Value-News.

There are already signs of development and findings that will lead to lasting changes. The need for reliable information and categorisation is even greater than before the outbreak of COVID-19. The online portals of domestic TV stations and newspapers have recorded above-average access figures in recent weeks. In addition to this, a comprehensive push for digitisation has developed, as there has been a massive gain in momentum for numerous processes that were already underway. And last but not least, there are still economic ramifications to be dealt with. Intelligent solutions and initiatives are in demand, particularly for severely affected areas such as the restaurant and hotel industry.

Austria-Kiosk will now provide an improved and even more easily accessible range of information. Operated by APA-DeFacto, Austria’s largest digital newsstand offers newspapers, magazines and specialist media as digital e-papers. APA-DeFacto has put together a special package for the hotel and restaurant industry. The system behind it is called “FreeLounge“ and has been successfully in use for a number of years. It enables companies and organisations to provide their customers and visitors with newspapers and magazines free of charge via W-LAN.

“Digital media use is playing a major role in the current situation,“ APA-DeFacto Managing Director Klemens Ganner explains. “The need for flexibly available information is particularly significant in difficult times. With Austria-Kiosk’s FreeLounge we have created easy, low-threshold access to newspapers and magazines. That means hotels and restaurants have an easy option for offering their guests further added value and for always having their favourite newspaper on hand.“

“There are already more than 150 FreeLounge locations in Austria and new ones are being added all the time,“ says Ganner, who is delighted about the significant demand. “Austria-Kiosk shows that digitisation can be entirely uncomplicated.“

Via the Austria-Kiosk FreeLounge, more than 400 Austrian and international daily newspapers, numerous magazines and specialist media can currently be read digitally as e-papers, including all domestic daily newspapers as well as many weekly newspapers and magazines. Austria-Kiosk also carries international titles such as “DIE WELT“, “The Guardian“ and “The Observer“.

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At a time in which physical contact is still kept to a minimum, new formats for digital communication are developing swiftly and often encountering a new level of acceptance. For example, virtual press conferences have also experienced an upturn. After all, interaction can also be generated in digital space, for instance by means of a question-and-answer tool, as is offered at APA-Press Centre at Vienna’s Naschmarkt. Live streams can be ordered here, and people can be added via webcam and integrated into the online event.

Video stream as default mode

“With a great deal of competence, creativity, flexibility and commitment, we have organised nearly 30 digital events this year so far, from online press conferences to product presentations and an online congress lasting several days. Customers from a wide range of industries have used APA-Press Centre and its equipment,“ APA-OTS Managing Director Julia Wippersberg says, looking back at the last months. The demand for modern streaming technology was already there before the corona crisis but has grown enormously since mid-March. Product Manager Robert Nowak is certain: “For journalists and media representatives, video streaming will become the default mode in the future, for participation by clicking on the streaming link is already part of the new normal – as is the feedback channel for questions.“

From planning to post-processing – everything from a single source.

The basics of event management apply not only to physical but also to virtual conferences, presentations, discussions and online workshops. The APA-Press Centre team advises on event planning and, if required, also organises photo coverage and the dissemination of information. Online events of any kind and size can be set up quickly, which makes APA-Press Centre interesting for digital crisis communication as well. Using the professional tool “PR-Desk“, press releases or a video can be distributed to the public afterward quickly and easily and the media response to the online event can be measured.

Der Beitrag APA-Press Centre: live in the digital stream erschien zuerst auf APA-Value-News.

Whether election results, population age structure, changes in temperature or climate, percentage of green areas, overnight stays, kindergarten places and much more: public organisations collect enormous quantities of statistical data. Currently, a large portion of this data is not textually developed or is insufficiently so. This is due less to a lack of interest than to a shortage of time to produce these texts. “Editorial offices generally do not have the resources to journalistically process all of the available data, which is one of the reasons why many stories are not being written. Content automation is aimed at generating new content, whose journalistic creation has not been possible on this scale up till now,“ says Katharina Schell of APA’s editorial board and director of APA’s Automated Content project, which was begun last year. The fact that human performance should not be underestimated by any means has been known since the initial attempts at automation, for when reporting on the National Council and EU elections last year, APA had already gathered extensive expertise with automatically generated texts.

Funding through the Vienna Media Initiative

Established in 2019, the City of Vienna’s funding programme “Vienna Media Initiative“ has come at just the right time. Since November, 23 out of 47 submitted projects focusing on high-quality journalism have received support, among them the Vienna Data Stories.

From big data to local content

Although the algorithms are generally launched in areas such as sports, finance, economy, and perhaps also weather and elections, in its thematic range the City of Vienna’s statistical data is an optimal area of activity. “It covers numerous aspects of daily life in the city, which means entirely new approaches to data storytelling can be developed and realistic stories can be generated in real time,“ Schell points out. For who knows what the most common species of tree in Donaustadt is, or how many dogs live in Mariahilf and how much space each of them has in relation to the area of the district? Whether the heat in the increasingly hotter summers is still normal and how many drinking fountains in the neighbourhoods are available to cool off is also of considerable regional relevance. This is all collected by the City of Vienna and can be found as tables in extracts in the Statistical Yearbook and individual brochures and in various formats in the internet. Developers and data journalists at APA’s editorial office optimise this for journalistic use, write rule-based templates and can create area-specific stories with it at the press of a button. The media as well as local authorities, municipal service providers and other public institutions can obtain these texts from APA and provide citizens with regional, hyperlocal and new information on areas that pertain directly to their lives. The Vienna Data Stories project launches in October 2020.

Strategic flagship project

For an independent news agency such as APA, which also sees its role as a service provider and enabler for the Austrian media and communications industry and has positioned itself at the interface of content and technology, the Vienna Data Stories integrate perfectly into company strategy. This is one of the reasons it is such a pleasure to be able to focus on this subject more intensively. APA CEO Clemens Pig sees “Viennese Data Stories as another concrete example of the competence in the use of data and artificial intelligence in the APA newsroom,“ and with it, APA can add another building block to innovative, customised content services for a digitised media industry.

For APA Editor-in-Chief Johannes Bruckenberger, too, the funding from the Vienna Media Initiative is “an important step for the future field of automated journalism at APA. Our editorial team already broke new journalistic ground last year with automated content on elections. Now we can use this new dimension of data journalism to develop further relevant local stories that are highly useful for both media enterprises and users.“

Journalistic quality standards

Katharina Schell is responsible for editorial innovation on the APA editorial board and also represents the editorial team at APA-medialab, APA-Austrian Press Agency’s innovation unit. She is familiar with the needs of editorial offices and knows precisely what complex algorithms require for fluid formulation. It is also the journalistic background that makes APA particularly predestined for projects of this kind. That is because journalistic standards of quality such as source reliability, plausibility checks, transparency and the principle of dual control must be ensured despite the automated process. This applies not only to checking the correct data situation but also, for example, to transparency notices indicating the information is generated automatically.

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