News and the media at times of transition.

A player rather than a observer.
Peter Kropsch, Director of APA Austria Presse Agentur eG

On March 27, 2014 Mag. Peter Kropsch, a graduate in journalism and one of Austria’s most prominent information service providers, was the visiting speaker in the MCI Alumni & Friends lecture series at the Entrepreneurial School®.

“The APA as a lighthouse in today’s sea of information.” –That is how the Director of Austria Presse Agentur interprets the role of his politically and financially independent organization at an exciting time for news, information, media and new channels of communication.

According to Peter Kropsch, today’s media businesses are confronted with many changes and new challenges: “There are so many questions you have to address, and if you don’t you’re finished.” User habits are changing and for the younger generation especially, news access via iPad, Android etc. now goes without saying.

“The changes in user behavior are very apparent,” says the media man with regard to the shift in the global power structures in the information business. Google, Twitter and Facebook are the new big players on the market. In this context, Kropsch describes the system as being increasingly ‘”unregulated” and speaks at the same time of the principle of “might makes right” on such markets.

With the help of social media, news can be instantaneously written, disseminated, modified and commented on, but verification is becoming increasingly difficult with regard to correctness of content, the source and the reliability of the author. That is where the APA comes in – as “a lighthouse in today’s sea of information”, which makes available verified, properly researched and competent news.

The talk was chaired by Hans Herbert Holzamer.

Einladung_Kropsch.pdf