Clemens Pig confirmed as CEO of APA

The general meeting of APA – Austria Press Agency has confirmed Clemens Pig for a further five-year term as President and CEO of APA. According to an announcement by the general assembly: “Clemens Pig combines the timeless value system of independent agency journalism with innovative technology solutions and new business models for the cooperative ecosystem of the media and communications industry with a forward-looking strategic approach. We look forward to continuing this successful path together with Clemens as the CEO of APA.“

“APA-Group is now one of the leading news agencies in Europe. I look forward to guiding APA – Austria Press Agency’s operations and cooperative mission into the digital future in the coming years while strengthening our international focus in the area of editorial technology. I would like to thank the general meeting of APA for their confidence in me,” said Clemens Pig.

APA – Austria Press Agency, which presented its new strategy update “Trusted Content & Trusted AI” at the beginning of the 2024 year, is also looking back this year on the 175th anniversary of the founding of the news agency – including its direct predecessors. APA’s oldest predecessor was founded in October 1849 as the Österreichische Correspondenz. Since 1946, APA has been organised as a profit-oriented cooperative owned by the domestic media and is today a mainstay of the information supply in Austria and one of only about 20 news agencies worldwide that are independent of state and government.

Independence as a maxim

Today, the primary goal is to maintain the economic and editorial independence of APA, which is continually confronted with new media and sociopolitical challenges. For example, “using AI to spread disinformation in social networks on a massive scale, attacks on the digital information society are a threat to democracies and the media worldwide that we can only counter together,” Pig says. In his book “Democracy Dies in Darkness”, which was published in 2023, the CEO of APA-Group summarises the current challenges, describes ways to successfully overcome them and argues in favour of continued development from a dual to a cooperative media system.

Clemens Pig 

Clemens Pig holds a doctorate in political science with a focus on digital communication and media. Born in Tyrol, he founded the start-up MediaWatch – Institute for Media Analyses in 1996 during his studies and, upon its successful sale, merged it into APA-Group in 2001. In 2008, Pig joined APA management in Vienna, initially as Director of Marketing and Sales and Managing Director of the APA subsidiary APA-DeFacto Datenbank & Contentmanagement GmbH. In 2014, Pig was appointed Managing Director of APA-Group and took over as President and CEO in 2016. In his academic work, Pig has published a number of papers and books on the development of media in the process of digitalisation. In 2013, he was distinguished with the Austrian Research Award by the Austrian Public Relations Association (PRVA), and in 2018 he was named Media Manager of the Year by the magazine “Der österreichische Journalist”. Pig is also President of the Austrian Association of Cooperatives (ÖGV) and Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Swiss news agency group Keystone-SDA (Bern). He was also President of the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) until 2023. Clemens Pig (50) is married with three daughters.

APA – Austria Press Agency 

APA – Austria Press Agency is the national news agency and the leading information service provider in Austria. It is owned by Austrian daily newspapers and the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). APA-Group consists of a cooperative news agency (APA-News) and several national and international subsidiaries and is active in the areas of information and communication management (APA-Comm) and information technology (APA-Tech). APA is one of only about 20 news agencies worldwide that are independent of state and government. APA’s multimedia reporting serves the media as a reliable, independent, fast and fact-based source. In addition, APA-Group offers media monitoring, media analysis and distribution services as well as specialised solutions for communications professionals in politics and business.

www.apa.at