Press Releases

09/25/2009

AP may sell stake in its German Service


FRANKFURT (AP) — The Associated Press said Friday that it is in talks with German news agency DDP about selling a stake in AP's German language news service to the Berlin-based company.

The discussions involve the possibility of Deutscher Depeschendienst GmbH acquiring a shareholding in AP GmbH — AP's Germany-based subsidiary — and a long-term content-sharing agreement, AP said.

"However, nothing has been finalized," said the AP statement. A separate DDP statement said such a deal would permit it to offer German customers "a customer-oriented thorough service."

The AP, founded in 1846, is the world's largest and oldest news organization. Based in New York, it is a not-for-profit cooperative owned by its U.S. newspaper membership. Its 52-year-old German subsidiary is Germany's second-largest news agency, after Deutsche Presse-Agentur, or DPA.

AP's German-language service provides domestic text and photo coverage and translates AP's international report for scores of media outlets in Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Austria. Based in Frankfurt, it was established in 1947 and has offices in Berlin and other German cities.

DDP, which distributes national and regional news in Germany, provides coverage of German business and economic news, as well as sports, culture and extensive feature stories.

According to DDP's Web site, DDP is a subsidiary of DDP Media Holding AG, which was taken over in January by Peter Loew and Martin Vorderwuelbecke, a pair of Munich media investors. Besides the news agency, DDP Media Holding also owns a photo agency and other media properties.

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On the Net:

http://www.ap-online.de/

http://www.ddp.de/