FAQ

dpa is an independent news agency that belongs to the German media. Our partners are also our customers and they pay for these news stories. They pay so we can continue providing these stories from around the world. Simply put, news is expensive. Keeping editors in more than 100 countries working independently, without prejudice and reliably costs money – and dpa does not accept invitations or contributions. Our customers pay for the right to distribute these news stories. This is why you won’t find news stories here. You’ll find them with our customers and for a first insight, you can read the international top stories on www.dpa-international.com. 

To produce this wide variety of products we report with twelve state services from all over Germany. We have correspondents stationed around the world who work together with our regional correspondents to create the dpa Europe service. We report on a variety of topics including: politics, economy, human interest stories, sports, culture, media, science, technology. We also create graphics and offer hundreds of photos daily.

Our radio correspondents keep us informed and the dpa video service takes care to ensure websites have moving images. And dpa’s News for Kids is specially catered to reach children and explain things in a kid-friendly way.

dpa’s goal is to depict the world in words, pictures, graphics and videos. And we do this in English, Spanish, Arabic, French, Polish, Russian and of course, in German.

What don’t we do? dpa delivers messages, reports, background information and interviews. But never opinion. This is why commentary, editorials and satires are not provided through dpa.

dpa’s journalists are free and independent when it comes to their reporting. We are committed to truth, and not to political parties, religious or cultural beliefs, industry or any other interest groups.

For dpa, trust and truth are of utmost importance. Our business model is based on absolute reliability. This is why there is no job more important that sifting facts from the daily flood of information to ensure lies and propaganda are not disseminated to our customers.

In addition to a vetted group of correspondents, dpa has a system of controls to ensure errors are not transmitted through our products. No story is ever published without having been seen by at least two editors and if necessary, we choose accuracy over speed. 

Of course we make mistakes. dpa is a company comprised of real people and there is always the possibility of misunderstandings, misperceptions or simple spelling errors. But even the smallest errors are important for dpa’s credibility, which is why we address them openly, honestly and in the most transparent fashion possible.

When an error occurs, reports are sent out a second time with a label reading “rectification.”  Customers will find the correction is written out twice – once above the text headline in an abbreviated fashion and then again below the text where the error is explained in detail. These corrections are then disseminated through the usual dpa channels with the same priority as the original text.

dpa mistakes happen every day. We pride ourselves in being very thorough when it comes to fact checking and providing reliable content and most corrections do not alter the substance of the report. Most often it is a small mistake that was overlooked, like a spelling mistake or correcting the age of a person.

Our primary users are newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, online providers, governments, foreign parliaments, political parties, associations and organizations. These organizations have access to dpa's multimedia services, which includes texts, photos, graphics and audio. Essentially any type of company can become a dpa client. More information about the wide variety of products dpa offers can be found on our website.

No news are sold to individuals or private persons.

We are happy to make you an offer and send you the original text. Please send your inquiry to internationalsales@dpa.com and include your complete contact details and the intended use.
The license price for fair use rights is dependent on the extent of use and ranges between 150 to 350 euros, not including tax..

Information on photo pricing is available through dpa’s Picture-Alliance. Please contact us by phone 069 2716-4770 or by email: sales@picture-alliance.com.

Infographics are produced and disseminated by the dpa subsidiary dpa Infographics GmbH. For information on distribution and pricing please contact infografik@dpa.com or by phone: 040 4113-32940.

We will process your request and contact you directly.

We ask for your understanding that dpa is unable to make any individual statements on whether the use of dpa content or parts of dpa content is permitted. Simply the review and assessment of such questions related to copyright use is difficult and requires considerable expense. Please understand that we cannot provide this type of legal advice or opinion.

If you need clarification on the legal admissibility as to the nature or content you are using, we encourage you to seek assistance from the appropriate bodies, such as lawyers, who can review the usage rights.

Please send your information to the appropriate regional office that will select and edit the texts. A list of the regional offices can be found here. 

If you are interested in distributing your original press release, we recommend news aktuell, a subsidiary of the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). More information about news aktuell can be found here.

  • The Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ)
  • The Federation of German Newspaper Publishers (BDZV)
  • German Federation of Journalists (DJV)
  • Ver.di - United Services Trade Union