The Czech economy is closely linked to the economy of the neighbouring German-speaking countries and communication with local partners or customers is crucial there. Protext ČTK offers companies a new tool for addressing the local media. Thanks to partnership agreements with News Aktuell, a 100% subsidiary of the German news agency Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa), and the Austrian news agency APA, it is now possible to send press releases in their original form directly to media, institutions and leading companies in Germany and Austria.
Both agencies will publish a press release sent by a client through their own communication channels. They will send the press release directly to journalists via their editorial systems as well as publish it on their agency websites where it will be available to the public. After the press release is issued, the agencies will also provide media monitoring for the client.
"We want to help companies inform about their activities on the German and Austrian markets directly and at an affordable price. Through us, they can reach the media in Germany or Austria under the terms comparable to the distribution in the Czech Republic," said Petr Orálek, Director of Strategy and Development at ČTK.
Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) ranks among major, independent, and internationally operating news agencies. It has more than 50 branches in Germany and over 80 foreign correspondent offices. The agency was founded in 1949 as a joint venture of German media. The core company of the group is Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH. The entire dpa group employs approximately 1,300 people worldwide.
Since its founding in Hamburg on August 3, 1989, News Aktuell, a 100% subsidiary of dpa, has become an international communication provider. Today, it employs more than 135 people in five offices in Germany and Switzerland. Since the launch of this service, over four million press releases have been distributed, and the Zimpel database contains 612,000 journalist contacts worldwide.
APA – Austria Presse Agentur is Austria's national news agency, independent of the state. Its editorial office supplies a large part of the Austrian media landscape with news in text, image, graphic, audio, and video formats. It was founded in Vienna in 1946.
APA – The APA-OTS (Original Text Service) ensures the distribution of press releases in their original form. The APA-OTS service does not edit the texts and verify the facts. In some cases, clients have their own accounts and can distribute messages automatically without APA-OTS knowing the content in advance. The responsibility for distributing OTS materials always lies solely with the client, and they are assigned a unique sender ID.News Agency to distribute their press releases. The release is provided to ČTK's news service subscribers, including media, individual journalists, government authorities, and businesses, in its original form without editorial modifications.
The ČTK Protext service, which is part of the non-news activities under the ČTK Connect brand, allows the clients – businesses, public institutions as well as individuals – to use the communication network of the Czech News Agency to distribute their press releases. The release is provided to ČTK's news service subscribers, including media, individual journalists, government authorities, and businesses, in its original form without editorial modifications.