North America

In cooperation with premium partner LINK TV, a two-hour DW special analyzing the “State of the Union Address” was broadcast nationwide in the US. The DW special delivered a unique European perspective on the US president’s speech. LINK TV specializes in international programming and is broadcast to an estimated 34 million households around the US.

Latin America

Over 40 DW reports from the Berlinale Film Festival and the Munich Security Conference were broadcast in prime time by DW Premium Now partners with the largest audience shares in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru. The partners praised the smooth and efficient workflow of their DW distribution partners.

Asia

DW has a new online partner in Nepal. The English-language news website Kathmandu Tribune will soon begin including online content from DW English.

DW Bogotá office manager Ophelia Harms and DW reporter Aitor Saez.

With its new correspondents’ office in Bogotá, Colombia, DW will expand its coverage of important news and issues affecting countries across Latin and South America. The new office comes as DW’s television audience grows in the region along with DW’s Spanish-language online content generating more page views.

DW’s reporting in Latin America can offer unique coverage of issues that are not often discussed in local media such as state corruption or the oppression of indigenous peoples. As Colombia starts to find its way out of an ongoing civil conflict, DW can provide comprehensive and objective coverage of the peace process.

Along with Colombia, DW’s Bogotá correspondents will be providing coverage of news and events from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. The office will be run by Ofelia Harms, a DW journalist from Mexico, who is a former DW trainee.

The president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, welcomed DW in a Twitter post and wished DW success with its work.

DW’s Bogotá office builds on DW’s partner-based strategy in Latin America and will contribute to its continued success. There are currently over 800 DW partners across Latin America that carry and rebroadcast DW’s news and entertainment content.

Latin America

DW presented the winners of a multimedia journalism competition with their prizes in Colombia at an awards ceremony held at DW’s Colombian partner station, Señal Colombia, in Bogotá. The contest received a lot of attention from Colombian media and the awards ceremony was attended by many prominent journalists and media producers. Two grand prize winners received a trip to Bonn for the Global Media Forum and four others also received prizes. Around 60 participants competed in the contest which was centered on environmental and ecological issues. The contest ran from the end of last year to April and was divided into video and print categories.

Asia

DW has a new web TV partner in India. Zenga TV, one of India’s leading portals for TV live streams will now carry the English-language channel, DW. The channel is also available via Zenga on mobile devices. The service currently has 21 million registered subscribers.

Indonesia’s largest pay-TV platform, Indovision, is now including DW in its expanded IPTV service, Playmedia. The provider expects to draw 1.5 million new subscribers with the service.

The Taiwanese cable provider Digidom will now carry the English-language channel, DW. The provider delivers local and international TV channels to Taipei.

DW Akademie believes more should be done for local journalists and that thorough research needs to be recognized. With Investiga DW is introducing a journalism prize in Latin America that should highlight these issues and the journalists that work to ensure them. The competition is open to television, radio and online journalists and the deadline for submissions is April 30, 2012.

The focus will be on reports with a social and political weight – topics that Colombian journalists are sometimes hesitant to tackle. “We’re hoping for a courageous type of local journalism, one that shapes public opinion without being patronizing. This is incredibly important in Latin American countries where media systems are usually centralized,” says Petra Berner from DW Akademie.

DW Akademie will award the winner a ten-day trip to Germany. This will include participation in the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum and discussions with DW staff in Bonn and Berlin. The runner-up will receive a multimedia equipment set, funded by the Universidad del Norte.

In Spanish, “investigar” means to investigate, to research. “We want to motivate local journalists to dig deeper. We’re looking for stories that haven’t been told,” says DW Akademie Director Gerda Meuer.

Deutsche Welle (DW) will be expanding its Spanish television service for Latin America from two to 20 hours daily, starting February 6, 2012. The new lineup for viewers between Mexico and Tierra del Fuego is part of a comprehensive reform process designed to reposition DW in the international media landscape. The expansion of the program for Latin America will significantly increase DW’s presence there.

DW officially announced the changes at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 26. Mexican President Felipe Calderón said: “It is great to have a partner like Deutsche Welle broadcasting for 20 hours in Spanish. It opens up new opportunities in Latin America. The program will be a bridge to Europe, and Germany in particular. DW has seen success in the competitive television market in Latin America from day one. Around 850 partners throughout the region have included DW programming in their lineups so far – and negotiations with other partners are currently under way.

The new Spanish program required a lot of hard work and restructuring. A big change is in store for Gonzalo Cáceres, who has been a host for Journal and Cuadriga for years. His new job will be to manage and host Claves with partners on location. including ARTV in Chile, SJRTV in Mexico and RTVC in Colombia. The new show will focus on the latest issues in Latin America.

DW will also be welcoming several new faces – among them, Silvia Cabrera. She will be hosting Berlin poltico and Journal. According to Cabrera, DW has a lot to gain in Latin America by setting itself apart as a reliable, objective source of information.

New to the Spanish editorial team: Ana Plasencia, Carolina Chimoy and Paco Furio.

Another addition is Paco Furio. Not only will he be the new producer and host for sports on Journal, but he will also help manage the magazines Reporteros en el mundo, PopXtra and Europa semanal.

“German punctuality and reliability is something that you can count on,” says Carolina Chimoy. The daughter of a Peruvian diplomat will be hosting Journal as well as Reporteros el mundo dazu.

The new Spanish program for Latin America will also receive support from a completely redesigned website for Spanish-speaking users. In the future, the editorial team will be made up of more than 130 employees.