This year, multimedia editing was definitively consolidated, ensuring that all nationally relevant daily news is packaged with photos and/or videos on the EFE Servicios platform. This achievement was thanks to the remarkable efforts of the editing team, who have embraced their new roles with highly satisfactory results.
Due to Spain’s EU Presidency, the editorial team also organized to cover all significant events in Spain, coordinating with all EFE delegations in the regions where major sectoral summits were held.
The municipal and regional elections in May were another milestone, requiring extra effort from the national team and all Spanish delegations for the electoral call and the subsequent negotiation and monitoring of agreements to form regional and local governments.
This was followed by the unexpected call for general elections in July, which demanded a rapid response to ensure coverage. Once again, EFE‘s exclusive topics set the agenda for other media outlets. After the elections, the negotiations to form the government took up much of the department’s work.
Another significant event of the year that shaped the national news and work was Princess Leonor’s coming of age. She swore allegiance to the Constitution in the Congress and joined the General Military Academy of Zaragoza.
The outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas dominated much of EFE‘s international news coverage in 2023, necessitating the immediate and successive deployment of special correspondents to Israel to address the global interest in the conflict. This coverage competed with that of the war in Ukraine, where EFE established a permanent bureau last year.
Other significant coverages included the earthquakes in Morocco, Turkey, and Syria, which required teams to be dispatched from Madrid.
Spain’s second-half 2023 presidency of the Council of the European Union, including the EU-CELAC summit in Brussels, the informal meeting of heads of state and government, and the third meeting of the European Political Community, both held in Granada, also required extensive coordination and coverage efforts.
Additionally, following a successful public tender, 18 journalists were assigned to the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council’s team to develop and manage website content.
In 2023, new heads were appointed for the delegations in Portugal, Russia, Germany, India, and Bolivia.
In 2023, EFE made a significant effort to cover the tumultuous year in America, which began with an attempted coup by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro just a week after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to power.
This event shared the spotlight with Javier Milei’s electoral victory in Argentina, the rise in violence linked to organized crime, and its infiltration into state powers in some countries of the region, even resulting in the assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador.
Other notable issues highlighting EFE‘s informative capacity included the fight against gangs, the migration problem on the continent, and the agreement between Venezuela, the Venezuelan opposition, and the United States for democratic elections in 2024. EFE‘s extensive network of professionals spans from north to south, from Toronto to Buenos Aires, demonstrating its strong presence in the continent.
The struggle between the United States and China in the Asia-Pacific region and North Korea’s nuclear race also dominated the daily activities of EFE journalists in that part of the world, where the agency is one of the few Spanish media outlets with a permanent presence in many countries of the region. A testament to this was the exclusive coverage of the arrest of a Spaniard as the alleged perpetrator of the murder of a Colombian surgeon in Thailand, which received widespread media attention.
EFE‘s coverage of economic news in 2023 focused on significant events like the tightening of monetary policy by major central banks, resulting in increased financing costs, the relocation of Ferrovial to the Netherlands, the entry of Saudi STC into Telefónica, the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency platform FTX, and the banking crisis in the US with the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and Switzerland with the failure of Credit Suisse and its subsequent acquisition by UBS.
During Spain’s EU Council Presidency, the economy team covered key economic meetings, including the Ecofin in Santiago, the Telecom Ministers’ meeting in León, and the Trade Ministers’ meeting in Valencia. After EFE won the contract, an editor and a reporter from the Economy section contributed to the European Presidency’s website team.
For the July 23 general elections, EFE covered the economic proposals of the political parties and organized a debate between their economic spokespersons.
EFE also conducted impactful interviews, including one with Elma Saiz, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, her first since taking office
and another with Finance Minister María Jesús Montero before she succeeded Nadia Calviño as First Vice President.
The collaboration with Red.es led to EFE‘s participation in its space at MWC 23 from February 27 to March 2. EFE conducted interviews with political and business representatives at its stand, participated in presentations at the Pavilion, and featured a lecture by Soledad Álvarez, Director of Strategy, and José Rodríguez, head of EFE Comunica.
The Economy section strengthened its multimedia information strategy with several initiatives:
Consolidation of multimedia editing with the packaging of major economic news.
Daily production of photos and videos from the Madrid Stock Exchange, including a narrated version for social media.
Weekly expert videos that summarize the stock market week, preview next week’s investor agenda, and explain key economic issues in America.
Monthly expert videos on the stock market and Euribor trends.
Maintenance of the EFE Economía account, which has nearly 26,000 followers.
In 2023, EFE‘s international environmental coverage highlighted significant events such as COP28 in the United Arab Emirates and the approval of the High Seas Treaty. This year saw an increase in natural disasters and extreme weather events, including earthquakes in Turkey, Syria, and Morocco; floods in Greece and Libya; and wildfires in Hawaii.
The rise in renewable energy usage, heatwaves, and record temperatures were recurrent phenomena. In Spain, the lack of rainfall led to a drought, prompting emergency measures in several autonomous communities, requiring special monitoring by EFE Verde and regional services. The approval of the Animal Welfare Law was another significant milestone.
EFE Verde continued its environmental alliances, securing agreements with entities like the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group. EFE Verde and EFE Escuela also renewed their environmental journalism specialization programs with organizations such as WWF, Signus Ecovalor, Sigre, and Oriva.
In 2023, EFE Verde launched the weekly newsletter “Planeta Sostenible” and a special daily edition covering COP28 in Dubai, supported by IFC. The organization received distinctions such as the Iberdrola Convive Award and the Metalgraphic Association Communication Award in 2023. Ana Tuñas Matilla, a writer for EFE Verde, was honored with an annual award from Enerclub.
Furthermore, an environmental cartoon by Mexican artist Víctor Solís (@Visoor) received an honorable mention at the European Cartoon Award, and another by Juan López Rico (#Lopez) won the Orange Communication Award in the new media category.
In July, EFE hosted a debate on environmental policy with major political parties, coinciding with the general elections.
EFE Deportes once again highlighted women’s sports in 2023, as Spain made its mark on the world stage. Olga Carmona’s goal against England (1-0) crowned Spain the world champion in the Women’s World Cup held in Australia and New Zealand. Nearly 8.9 million viewers watched the final at some point during the broadcast on La1 TVE.
Our special correspondent, Nayara Batschke, witnessed the Spanish team’s feat. She traveled from the Bangkok delegation and reinforced the strategy of decentralizing coverage for such events. Gloria Barquero from the Madrid newsroom coordinated the World Cup operations in August with a predominantly female team supported by experts Paula Lerín and Lucía González.
The inappropriate behavior of Luis Rubiales, then president of the RFEF, with his conduct in the stands and his kiss to Jennifer Hermoso, dominated the workload for weeks. Legal ramifications were successfully reported thanks to the expertise of our colleague Olga Martín and the invaluable support of our Courts section, always at the forefront and providing exclusives on what is now known as the ‘Rubiales case.’
EFEDeportes remained a leader in the sports industry. The EFE Sport Business newsletter is a leading influencer in the sector. For this reason, Gloria Barquero was included among the Top 100 most influential women in Spain at the Women’s Sports Institute Gala.
EFE Deportes also took on the challenge of organizing Sport Business Forums outside Madrid, establishing a business line sponsored by LaLiga. The forum at San Mamés stadium in Bilbao significantly impacted all media outlets in Euskadi. Athletic Club, the Bilbao City Council, SD Eibar, and Jon Rahm’s circle provided a slew of headlines picked up by El Correo, Deia, ETB, and others.
Additionally, Vinicius Junior won his first EFE Trophy for the best Ibero-American player. We also witnessed Carlos Alcaraz’s victory at Wimbledon live, covered by our EFE delegation in London. The Murcian tennis player gave an exclusive interview to Manu Sánchez Gómez after the final, who even narrated the celebration at the gala dinner hosted by the organizers. No other Spanish media outlet had access.
It has been a year of consolidating the former Television and Graphic departments.
Unified editorial planning and multitasking in the field have harnessed synergies and altered workflows. The objective is clear: to improve coordination and avoid duplicating efforts to ensure photo and video coverage in all reports.
2023 also saw progress in implementing multiformat dynamics across the rest of EFE.
The Audiovisual department conceived the idea of a “multimedia repository,” which the Technology department developed and oversaw its implementation and launch in the Valencia delegation.
The live information product gained increasing prominence, with testing beginning on the Titania live platform, a software for distributing and selling signals through EFE Servicios. Looking ahead to 2024, with solid experience, the commitment to this product has been crucial.
Two final milestones from last year:
The creation of a new audiovisual coordinator position, this time in Paris.
This role remains essential and fundamental for balancing profiles and modernizing the entire organization.
The acquisition of two scholarships sponsored by Canon Spain to explore new narratives and hybrid audiovisual formats with their tools and technologies.
EFE Verifica continued its growth in 2023, expanding its products and services, including a partnership with Microsoft to gather and analyze data on false Spanish-language publications and the podcast “Con Check,” which was recognized as the best verification project in the 2024 edition of the Digital Media Americas awards by the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
Additionally, throughout the year, EFE Verifica contributed to founding the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN), which brings together organizations specializing in combating misinformation across the continent to uphold the highest standards in this field and media literacy.
In the same spirit of collaboration and enhancing public service in the fight against misinformation, EFE participated in the Comprobado alliance to verify false claims during the 2023 general election campaign alongside major Spanish fact-checkers and about twenty mainstream media outlets.
The year 2023 was a period of notable achievements and advancements for Efeminista, EFE‘s equality portal, launching new projects, and receiving significant recognition.
The Association of Women Journalists of Catalonia (ADPC) awarded Efeminista the Non-Sexist Communication
Award in the “Good Practices in Feminist Project” category, highlighting the team’s continuous effort to promote inclusive and equitable communication. Additionally, Macarena Baena, the head of Efeminista, was honored with a “Francisquita,” an award given by the Francisca de Pedraza Association, recognizing her commitment and dedication to preventing, eradicating, and combating gender violence.
In 2023, Efeminista published several special reports, including one on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
This multimedia report, titled “Unprotected,” focusing on migrant women victims of gender violence in Spain, featured videos, photos, infographics, and illustrations highlighting the challenges faced by these survivors and the proposals to improve their situation.
For International Women’s Day on March 8, Efeminista published a special titled “8 Women Building Change,” showcasing the stories of eight anonymous women leading causes for women’s and girls’ rights worldwide, creating networks to close gender gaps, end violence, and improve lives.
During the Madrid Book Fair 2023, Efeminista interviewed writers, illustrators, poets, and editors attending the literary event. They also organized three video discussions with authors like Edurne Portela and Marta Sanz on violence and social networks, Carla Berrocal and Raquel Marín on feminist illustration, and Nerea Pérez de las Heras and Pamela Palenciano on humor as a transformative tool.
Topics covered on the website included the state of sexual and reproductive rights and the consequences of unsafe abortions in Latin America, as well as access and support for abortions in Spain. Other significant issues included the #SeAcabó movement, the #MeToo outcry against the president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, for non-consensually kissing Jenni Hermoso, and against sexism in football, along with the victory of the Spanish women’s football team in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Macarena Baena played a vital role as a moderator in the July electoral debate on equality policies organized by EFE. This event allowed representatives from different political parties to present their proposals and commitments to gender equality. It provided a space for dialogue and reflection on the necessary public policies to advance in this area
In 2023, EFE Salud continued developing informative and educational health content and launched an Instagram account to enhance its social media presence.
This year, EFE Salud’s informative-commercial initiative created debate spaces on important and interesting health topics through its formats, Health Dialogues, and EFE Health Forum.
Content covered included the regional challenge of personalized medicine, strategies and solutions to bring health innovation closer to patients, challenges in applying medical technology in the healthcare system, progress towards eliminating cervical cancer, an analysis of metastatic breast cancer giving patients a voice, and the social impact of chronic diseases with the presentation of the CROBI (chronicity and well-being) project at EFE.
Other initiatives included launching the “Olive Oils and Health” blog, maintaining video blogs with prominent medical specialists on preventing and treating diseases, the “Health and Prevention” blog covering a wide range of diseases and healthy lifestyle habits, and disseminating reports on private healthcare.
Our database topics are updated and expanded daily. Notably, over 750 chronologies/documents/biographies have been disseminated through various informational lines created by EFEData.
Since 2023, a PMM (daily highlight) has been prepared with the most significant event of the day.
In 2023, a total of 680,518 photos were documented.
Seville, Spain (02/07/2023): The exhibition “40 Years of Prosperity and Self-Government in Andalusia” commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Andalusian Parliament in Seville.
New Delhi, India (02/17/2023): The ” Unstoppable ” photographic exhibition at the New Delhi Cervantes Institute was inaugurated.
Washington, USA,(4/19/2023): Exhibition on Manuel de Falla, “Centenary of Manuel de Falla’s Seminal Opera.”
Guatemala City, Guatemala (05/03/2023): The exhibition “Central America, 50 Years in 50 Images” showcases 50 photographs marking EFE‘s half-century presence in Central America.
Madrid, Spain (06/20/2023): Renfe exhibits Spanish cycling achievements in the Tour de France on an Alvia train from Madrid to Bilbao, marking the 120th anniversary of the Tour de France.
Madrid, Spain (06/27/2023): Exhibition “The Best of Ibero-American Photojournalism” in the Campo del Moro Gardens, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the King of Spain International Journalism Awards.
London, UK (07/05/2023): Exhibition on milestones in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in Spain, titled “Proud of Our Pride,” at the Spanish Embassy in London.
San José, Costa Rica (09/07/2023): Exhibition marking EFE ‘s 50-year presence in Central America at the Museo de los Niños in San José.
Miami, USA (10/11/2023): Exhibition “Points of View: Photographs from the EFE Archive” at Miami Dade College (MDC).
Tegucigalpa, Honduras (10/11/2023): Exhibition “Central America, 50 Years in 50 Images” at the Cultural Center of Spain in Tegucigalpa.
La Laguna, Spain (10/16/2023): Exhibition “Faces of the Civil War” by the CajaCanarias Foundation, featuring EFE‘s collection.
In 2023, 108,894 video files (EFE + EPA) were added to the Estructure system.
In 2023, there were 10,657 downloads of features.
La Escuela de Periodismo de la Agencia EFE
In 2023, the EFE Journalism School’s international presence grew through new scholarship programs and the strengthening of some of its main programs.
The school’s participation in the ICEX Vives program allowed a dozen young people to train in EFE‘s delegations across four continents during the first phase of this project. EFE‘s contribution to this postgraduate program was presented as a success story at the ICEX conference in Madrid last September to promote the Vives project.
The latest edition of the EFE-Fundación “la Caixa” Journalism Scholarships, which added two more scholars compared to the previous year, also supported the school’s global development. These twelve students, who began training last November, will complete the second phase of their scholarship in EFE‘s international delegations. This scholarship, considered the best in journalism in Spain, reached its 19th edition.
Additionally, in 2023, the EFE América scholarships, aimed at training two students at the Bogotá delegation, were consolidated.
The school expanded its training offerings in Spain with the first edition of the EFE-SGAE “Carlos del Amo” Cultural Journalism Scholarship. This is the first scholarship named after an EFE journalist, aimed at specializing students in the Culture section at the agency’s central office in Madrid. Throughout 2023, collaboration agreements that EFE maintains with various entities for its training programs were renewed. EFE, through its school, trained over a hundred young people in countries across four continents.
Enrollments in the master’s programs offered by the EFE School and its academic partners increased in their latest editions. The Master’s in Agency Journalism, organized with Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, reached its enrollment limit of twenty-five students during the last period. The Master’s in Transmedia Journalism, offered online with UNED, also saw an increase in students, reaching twenty-one. These increases came after updates to both programs and their teaching staff. The school also launched new strategies on social media, with new channels and a revamped website, aiming to reach more students and improve communication with them about the training programs.
In 2023, European Parliament courses for young journalists complemented the school’s teaching activities, organized biannually with the RTVE Institute.
The school also contributed to EFE‘s internal training through sessions dedicated to war journalism and conflict zones. The first edition of the webinar “How to Report a War” was held in April, connecting agency correspondents with their colleagues worldwide. Additionally, the school facilitated the participation of EFE journalists from the central office and national and international delegations in first aid courses offered by the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (SEMES) and the Army’s war journalism course.
