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| APA-headquarter at Vienna’s Naschmarkt |  |
APA - Austria Press Agency is Austria's news agency and the country's leading information service provider. The agency is owned by 15 Austrian dailies and the ORF television network, which together guarantee APA's independence and impartiality. APA's legal status is a registered cooperative. Since all member organisations of APA - regardless of their economic potential - have equal access to APA information, APA contributes to the media diversity in Austria.
As Austria's essential leading media and a primary source of information, APA provides central infrastructural services in the field of information to the Austrian society. In its role as the leading supplier of information services, the APA-Group provides the basis for the daily work of Austrian media such as newspapers, radio and TV channels, online-service providers and magazines, as well as for information managers employed by corporations, political institutions, associations, and other organisations.
The APA-Group is active in four business areas: news agency, photo agency, information management, and information technology. APA's editorial departments offer updated news services in word, photo, graphics, as well as audio and video formats 24 hours a day. APA's subsidiaries offer dissemination, research, knowledge management services, as well as information technology solutions.
The social role of APA - Austria Press Agency
The key role is played by the basic service - the core product of APA's editorial departments. The basic news service, which is run on the principles of reliability, speed, and balance, fulfils the function of being a "public service". This service is able to offer factual reports around the clock, which are reliable, impartial, comprehensive, and real-time. APA thereby fulfils a "public task" as a private mandate. As a cooperative, APA is not subject to any directives or control rights or any other exertion of influence by public or non-public institutions. APA does not receive any press aid, subsidies or similar support. Profit-orientation and economic success provide for economic independence, which in turn are the decisive requirements for editorial independence. APA values this independence as the central prerequisite for a successful realisation of its mandate.
The nation's memory
Furthermore the APA functions as a digital "memory of the nation". It is not only Austria's largest database enterprise, but also the largest among the German-speaking countries. APA provides a total of 400 databases, which include more than 100 million documents. Among them, in addition to the APA services, are international press agencies, national and international newspapers, radio and TV news features (e.g. ORF information broadcasts) as well as numerous corporate and specialized databases. Furthermore APA is a highly specialized and innovative provider of technical services for media and media-associated corporations and organisations.
With its multimedia news offer, databases, as well as its comprehensive technical services, APA not only provides a substantial basis for everyday work in media organisations, but also a basis for work and decisions made in the broad fields of politics and economics.
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