Thursday, February 02, 2012

Innovations define DW's online presence

A groundbreaker in the German online news landscape, DW looks back on an Internet success story that began 18 years ago. Germany's international broadcaster became a trendsetter in online communication in 1994. Deutsche Welle was the first of Germany's public broadcasters to start a website - and it has been continuously expanded ever since. Today, DW is a master of online, multimedia content with the latest news and information as well as in-depth features in 30 languages. Some of the most popular online services on dw.de include the Media Center and the interactive language courses. A range of connected sites highlights the diversity of projects DW has developed.
The DW success story:
* In 2004, Deutsche Welle became the first public broadcaster in Germany to offer podcasts. Users can access this content in all 30 DW languages.
* In 2005, DW was the first broadcaster in Germany to offer video podcasts.
* DW launches its YouTube channel in 2007 and started distributing news via Twitter feeds.
* As part of progressive media convergence initiative, DW creates a New Media department and takes steps to combine radio and online teams to create multimedia editorial departments.
* DW sees a boom in Facebook users. Especially young users discover the benefits of DW's social media services - available since 2008.
* In 2009, DW is the first German public broadcaster to offer an iPhone app with articles, images and audio content.
* In 2010, DW launches its Media Center - an online archive for multimedia content in German and English. An Arabic version follows one year later.
* Half a million users subscribe to one of DW's many newsletters in 2011. Their opinions are vital for intercultural dialogue - and feedback is provided via e-mail, forums, surveys and on social media networks.
* DW focuses on innovative formats to help transmit the German language to users around the world. German students go to http://www.dw.de/ for a wide range of interactive courses, a web-based soap, an iPhone app and slowly spoken news.
Other popular formats include videos with didactic features and current headlines with vocabulary. A virtual classroom with a connection to journalistic content makes DW's language courses unique.
* DW awarded the BOBs - the international blog awards - for the first time in 2004. The competition provides a comprehensive overview of the blogosphere in 11 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, German, Indonesian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. An international jury and users choose the best blogs each year. This year's winners will be announced at the beginning of May 2012 and will receive their awards at a ceremony held during the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum at the end of June in Bonn (http://www.dw-gmf.de/).

(Press Release, January 31, 2012)

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