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Katharina Sunk, Editor ORF Lower Austria #68 Federalism: What must a digital ORF be able to do? When it comes to the most-read online story in 2020, the answer is quite clear, at least as far as noe.ORF.at is concerned: "The situation in Lower Austria" - a clear summary of the current coronavirus infection situation, with all the important figures, data and facts. It probably surprises no one that it was exactly this story that was called up most often in 2020. Why am I mentioning exactly that when it comes to ORF's transformation to digital? Because the coronavirus crisis showed quite clearly what a digital ORF can and must achieve.„Anyone looking for information in challenging times like these should be able to find it immediately - without having to search for it for a long time, without any digression. And those who have questions should get answers.“ In challenging times like these, anyone looking for information should be able to find it immediately - without having to search long and hard. And anyone with questions should get answers. This is precisely the principle on which the regional studio worked online during the "Corona Year" - which is also evident at first glance from the "Infopoint" set up on noe.ORF.at. 

The fact that ORF Lower Austria has been increasingly relying on new media for years already paid off in March 2020 at the latest. At a time when seemingly everything can change from one minute to the next and when the need for information was suddenly high even among those who had previously hardly consumed any news, ORF Niederösterreich managed not only to provide comprehensive information in the tried-and-tested media - television and radio - but also to reach more people than ever before in the digital media - be it precisely via the website, the ORF Niederösterreich app, the Radiothek and TVthek or also via social media. 

The latter in particular made it possible to respond to many questions at a time when there are many questions. For example, ORF Niederösterreich's Facebook presence shows that the interaction rate more than tripled last year. On Instagram, a platform that is generally developing more and more from "pretty pictures" to an information medium, the reach increased most significantly. Thanks to new staff structures, ORF Lower Austria was able to provide even more information here than before.  ORF Niederösterreich's recent information focus on the coronavirus vaccination, for example, shows how the digital can be networked with the classical. Questions on this topic that reach us via a wide variety of platforms are researched by the ORF Lower Austria editorial team and processed and answered weekly on television, radio and online. Because if you have questions, you should get answers - in the traditional way and digitally.