A new joint-project from DW, RBB and Berlin Producers is proving just how small the world is. Worldwide Berlin is hoping to create a connection to the more than 80 different Berlins that exist around the globe. Along with a four-part documentary airing in January, viewers can already dive into more than 100 Berlins on an interactive world map – each more colorful and curious than the last. It turns the world into a village, effortlessly eating up kilometers, climates and time zones.

Worldwide Berlin is a global interactive web documentary in the making. It is also the most comprehensive collection of stories from over 100 places worldwide called Berlin. If you want to find out how such a global, grassroots project got started – just take a look at the “making of” segments on the blog.

Building on 15 years of successful cooperation, DW and Polish public broadcaster TVP have laid the groundwork for future projects with a new cooperation agreement signed earlier this month.

The agreement was signed after a public preview of DW and TVP’s latest collaborative project, Learn Polish, at the Checkpoint Charlie museum in Berlin. Learn Polish tells the story of solidarity between the Polish trade unionist movement, Solidarność, and East German oppositionists during the 1980s. DW started broadcasting the documentary in English, German and Spanish on November 5. TVP will begin broadcasting the Polish version on December 15.

Another recent collaborative project from DW and TVP is the Polish-language documentary format Eurokultura. The program features DW reports adapted into Polish which are then sent to Warsaw and put together by TVP into a 15-minute show. Eurokultura premiered October 5. Each show is also available on DW’s Polish website.

Both broadcasters are looking forward to working together in the future.  DW Director General, Peter Limbourg, said that DW could potentially expand its cooperation with TVP by providing news content. TVP Director General, Juliusz Braun expressed interest in continuing with the German-Polish multimedia project, Nachbar– Wie geht’s? (How are you neighbor?), which aired earlier this year.  The format was produced in cooperation with the Leipzig-based German public broadcaster, MDR. It compares the lifestyles of a German family from Erfurt with a Polish family from Łomża, north of Warsaw. The portrayal of everyday life in Germany and Poland brings to light the common values shared by the two families and both nations.

DW’s ongoing cooperation with TVP reflects the role of cooperative broadcasting in enhancing European integration. Limbourg commented that these projects were important for, “the German-Polish neighborhood, for Europe and for the values of freedom and democracy.”

As the representative for Germany in the international media landscape, DW has a unique role in creating and promoting content that can help bring Europe closer together by highlighting shared values and common goals which know no borders.

DW Akademie and Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with the University of Istanbul are now offering young German or Turkish media professionals the chance for a world-class education in Istanbul. The International Media Studies (IMS) Turkish-German Master’s program was opened at the end of October during a DAAD conference in Istanbul. Creating the program took three years – from inspiration to accreditation.

Christian Gramsch, Director of DW Akademie, said the program aims to ensure that “independent and crucial journalism can fill its indispensible role in the development of our two countries.”  The director also emphasized the important role of the program as a positive force in Turkish-German relations.  The four-semester program is aimed at students with at least one year of work experience in a media-related field.  The language of instruction is English.

A DW web documentary was highly commended by the Association of International Broadcasting (AIB) at the media excellence awards ceremony in London.  Serengeti– Towards an uncertain future takes an up-close and interactive look at the unique natural beauty of this famous national park and addresses the tough challenges of conservation. The documentary was produced as a part of DW’s environmental series, Global Ideas, and was distinguished in the Factual Online Production category at the AIB awards. It premiered in August 2013 in English, German and Spanish and has already won several awards. The Frankfurt Zoological Society was also an integral production partner.

And there is a new interactive web documentary from DW’s Global Ideas. On Expedition is an interactive guide to everything researchers need to survive long journeys into exotic field locations.  The web doc follows the story of a WWF researcher in South America who encounters a very unexpected challenge during a research expedition.

Online

DW has expanded cooperation with Microsoft. Full-text DW articles in 12 languages now complement the rich variety of news content available on msn.com, Microsoft’s global news and information platform. The expansion to msn.com is an improvement on DW’s current cooperation with Microsoft’s Bing News; with better website functionality featuring prominent links to DW online content and advertising potential via a free promo banner that can be adapted to target languages.

Online articles from DW English are now being included on “The Most”, a new online news aggregator developed by The Washington Post. The platform aims to improve user experience with online news by “gathering the most engaging stories from a broad array of top news sources.” The Washington Post boasts 30 million visitors to its website each month.

DW was among a group of international broadcasters meeting in Paris this month to discuss issues surrounding internet censorship. Participants shared ideas on using censorship circumvention systems and discussed possibilities for closer cooperation. Broadcasters at the meeting included VoA, RFA, BBC, RFI, France24 and RNW.

DW is working in cooperation with Fraunhofer IAIS, dpa-inforcom and Neofonie on an innovation project called News-Stream 3.0, which will aggregate big data for journalists. The project develops software tools which make thousands of content sources easy to iuentify and use in newsrooms.

DW content will now be available on Amazon Fire TV and Smart TVs after a new agreement with the Opera Store.  Video-on-demand content in German, English, Spanish and Arabic will now be available on over 300 TV models and BluRay Players.

Asia

DW has a new partner in the Philippines. The IPTV provider SKYTEL will include DW’s flagship English channel, DW, in its programming package. Skytel began operations at the beginning of October and in its first year plans to reach 100,000 subscribers in the Quezon City/Manila metropolitan area.

DW has a new cable TV partner in Pakistan. OK Cable Network, located in the northern city of Nowshera, will deliver DW to around 10,000 households in the region.

North America

Audionow, a leading “call-to-listen” platform in the USA now features DW audio content in English, French, Hausa, Kiswahili, Portuguese and Amharic. Users access content with a telephone by calling a language-specific number.  The service aims to provide diaspora communities with radio news covering their home countries in their native languages.

Europe

DW will now be cooperating closely with the Ukrainian international broadcaster, UTR, after a memorandum of understanding was arranged between the directors of both broadcasters. Media training seminars provided in cooperation with DW Akademie are already in planning.  DW also plans to lend technical expertise and provide video content to UTR in English, Russian and Ukrainian. Additionally, UTR has expressed interest in acquiring journalistic content from DW. UTR was founded 12 years ago and focuses primarily on television production.

DW has a new Russian-language broadcasting partner based in Israel. Channel 9 broadcasts programming to Russian-speaking audiences in Israel via cable and satellite in Germany, North America and Australia.Also called Israel Plus, Channel 9 will now be broadcasting DW cultural programs Arts.21 and Euromaxx Highlights along with the science and environment formats Tomorrow Today and Global 3000. Online news and articles from DW are also to be included on the new partner’s website.  Channel 9 reaches the largest Russian-speaking television audience outside of Russia.