dpa articles: New metadata for text length specifications from 15.10.2026

We would like to inform you about an upgrade to the dpa-digitalwire format. From Thursday (15 October 2026), the character count and a classification in T-shirt sizes will be provided for the majority of dpa stories (various text services and weblines). These can be used, amongst other things, to filter content or to curate print products.

The extension fields provided for this purpose (check our documentation in the API portal) within the dpa-digitalwires format will be used for the additional metadata. Specifically, this involves:

• a new, separate top-level key
• a new, separate category with a new type

If you do not wish to use the length specifications, no changes to your receiving systems should be necessary.

For reference, we have published a sample article in the new dpa-digitalwires version 0.9.3 on our support portal.

New top-level attribute "measures"

A new attribute measures is being introduced at the top level of the dpa-digitalwires format. Initially, the object will contain only one attribute, body_char_count - the character count of the article text.

{
   ...
   "categories": [...],
   "measures": {
      "body_char_count": 5140
   },
   ...
}

Important: The key is an optional feature and will not be included with all content.

New category "dnltype:measure"

Longer dpa articles will be assigned a category that classifies them according to their character count, using a T-shirt size as a reference. This will make it even easier to filter articles based on their suitability for specific print products or other formats.

The entry in the categories list looks like this: 

{
   "type": "dnltype:measure",
   "name": "l",
   "qcode": "dpatshirtsize:l"
}

The available qcodes are:

• "dpatshirtsize:m": Size M (3,500 to 3,850 characters)
• "dpatshirtsize:l": Size L (5,000 to 5,500 characters)
• "dpatshirtsize:xl": Size XL (7,000 to 7,700 characters)