Type Aktieselskab Area served worldwide Founded 1 February 1866 | Products Wire service | |
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Key people Lars Vesterløkke (CEO), Erik Bjerager (Chairman) Profiles | ||
Ritzaus Bureau A/S, or Ritzau for short, is a Danish news agency founded by Erik Ritzau in 1866. It collaborates with three other Scandinavian news agencies to provide Nordic News, an English-language Scandinavian news service. It is based in Copenhagen and Lars Vesterløkke is editor-in-chief and CEO of the company.
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History
Ritzaus Bureau was founded by Erik Nicolai Ritzau in Copenhagen on 1 February 1866 under the name Nordisk Centralbureau for Telegrammer. The agency received international news by telegram from Wolffs Bureau (now Deutsche Presse-Agentur, DPA) im Berlin.
Erik Ritzau died in 1904. His son, Lauritz Ritzau, was CEO of the company from 1916 to 1958. The Ritzau family sold Ritzaus Bureau til tp the Danish newspapers in 1947. In 2007, DR became a co-owner of the agency. The company form was changed from an interessentskab (I/S) to an aktieselskab (A/S) in 2012.
Operations
It collaborates with three other Scandinavian news agencies to provide Nordic News, an English-language Scandinavian news service providing sixty stories daily. Ritzau is a member of the European Gruppe 39 collaboration.
Ownership
Ritzaus Bureau is today owned by 12 media groups;
Awards
In January 1988, Ritzau journalist Jens Jørgen Espersen received the Cavling Award for his covering of the Thorotrast scandal.