APA presents record sales 2024 - AI as the key to success!

APA presents record sales 2024 - AI as the key to success!

The APA - Austria Press Agentur eG published the annual financial statements for 2024 on June 11, 2025, which shows strong growth. The corporate turnover was 80.3 million euros, which represents an increase of about 6% compared to 2023 when sales were still 75.8 million euros. The operational result (EBIT) grew to 3.0 million euros, compared to 2.6 million euros in the previous year. The annual result (EGT) remained unchanged at EUR 3.2 million in 2023.

In the 2024 financial year, the average staffing status was 516 full-time equivalents, a marginal increase compared to 511 in 2023. The significant developments include the introduction of the new AI product portfolio "APA-NEWS assistant", which should contribute to the development of new customer markets. The APA continues to be confirmed as the largest national news agency group in Europe, as already reports the [HTTPS://www.horizont.at/medien/news/apa-belanz-so--apa-zur-groessten-nachrichten-nachrichten-gruppe-europas-91748).

innovations and challenges

Another important event was the introduction of the APA Newsdesk customer platform, which enables themed work. In addition, the new generation of the APA-OT-ONT manager and the AI-based image system APA-Pix was put into operation. This technological advances underline the innovative strength of the APA and the strategic focus on modern digital solutions.

The outlook on 2025 also shows challenges, especially through inflation, recession and various international developments. For the future, the APA is planning to develop a new AI editorial system with the name "First", which is to be designed for upcoming newsrooms.

artificial intelligence in the media industry

artificial intelligence plays an increasingly central role in the media industry, such as in an investigation of [pwc] (https://www.pwc.de/de/technology-Medien-und-telekommunikation/german-entainment-and-media-outlook-2018-2022/wie-kuenstliche--Medienbranch-revolution. is explained. AI procedures not only evaluate the quality and plausibility of content, but can also search the Internet for news through crawling and evaluate them on the basis of specified criteria. These criteria include the reputation of the source and the assessment of the gravity of a news.

Through autonomous, AI-based systems, text analyzes are carried out, keywords are identified and even the mood of an article is recorded. These procedures are based on different learning principles that enable the system to learn under human supervision or even autonomously.

Another sign of the growing importance of AI in the media landscape is the strong growth development in the APA-Tech business area, especially in Germany and Switzerland. The strategic focus on AI-based solutions is a decisive factor for the future competitiveness of the APA and its services.

The board mandate by Alexander Mitteräcker, Eva Schindlauer and Clemens Pig were confirmed for another three years, and Markus Raith was again elected to the supervisory board. This continuous leadership in the strategic committees is considered important in order to successfully master the upcoming challenges and further expand the innovative strength of the APA, such as [ots] (https://www.ots.at/presseausendung/ots_20250611_ots007777777777-mit-starkem-in-die-ki future) reported.