The courts were also very active in the Valencia region, where the judge in Catarroja continued to investigate the handling of the DANA floods, which devastated several municipalities in Valencia in October 2024 and claimed the lives of 230 people.
The same DANA floods that, one year later, led to the resignation of the President of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, a development EFE broke shortly before Mazón himself confirmed it.
The National News Department also provided extensive coverage of the historic nationwide blackout that took place in april of 2025. EFE took to the streets to report on how the country had been left without electricity and how society coped with this exceptional situation.
Throughout those months, EFE continued to follow the political debate across Spain’s different regions on a daily basis.
Only one election was held in Spain in 2025: the regional election in Extremadura (center west), in December. Nevertheless, the country was already in campaign mode ahead of other regional elections due to take place in 2026 — in Andalusia, Castile and León, and Aragon.
Culture also featured prominently in the National News Department’s coverage: Rosalía’s new album, LUX, became a worldwide phenomenon, as did Sirat, the film by Oliver Laxe. The Spanish News Agency EFE provided extensive coverage of these and many other cultural stories.
And, of course, social developments were also closely followed: the difficulties young people face in leaving the family home or gaining access to housing, the protests by doctors against the national healthcare framework statute, and the thousands of migrants who continued to arrive in Spain via routes such as the Canary Islands one.
The conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine dominated the international agenda in a year in which the conflict in Sudan escalated to unprecedented levels, turning the African country into the scene of the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
In June, the United States joined Israel in bombing Iran during a 12-day war in which the country’s nuclear, military and civilian facilities were attacked and more than 1,000 people were killed. EFE covered the conflict on the ground as one of the few Western media outlets with a permanent presence in Iran.
In addition, the United States launched what it called a war on drug trafficking, carrying out extrajudicial killings in attacks on suspected drug-trafficking boats, deploying its most advanced aircraft carrier and putting the Venezuelan regime in its sights.
EFE was present at every key location and event of the year: from Trump’s inaugural ceremony in January to the NATO summit in
The Hague in June, where an agreement was reached to raise defence spending to 5% of GDP over the next decade; from Lebanon, Gaza and Israel to Iran, Ukraine, Moscow and Venezuela; from the Alaska summit, where Putin returned to the international stage after years of isolation following the invasion of Ukraine, to Greenland, which held general elections amid scrutiny over Trump’s annexation ambitions.
The situation in Gaza continued to deteriorate despite the peace agreement brokered by Trump. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on 11 October, with progress towards a second phase pending the completion of the return of Israeli hostages by the Islamist group. Nevertheless, the daily death toll continued to rise as heavy rains battered a territory already reduced to rubble.
From the Gaza Strip, where Israel does not allow international media access, EFE continued to provide multimedia coverage through its permanent contributor, offering a window onto the daily horrors unfolding in the territory.
After two years of a sustained military offensive and restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid, on 16 September 2025 a UN commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza, amid growing international pressure on Israel over its actions in the Strip.
Days later, several countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Canada, recognised Palestine as a state during the United Nations General Assembly.
EFE reported on all of these issues from Geneva and New York.
It also covered, in a major real-time coordination effort involving several bureaus, the attempt in early September by some 500 activists of more than forty nationalities aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the Israeli blockade on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, in the largest expedition of its kind organised to date.
For weeks, members of the flotilla documented their journey on social media, where they reported attacks by the Israeli military.
The flotilla was ultimately intercepted by the Israeli Navy on 1 October 2025, and those on board were detained, imprisoned and repatriated to their respective countries in the following days.
Another of the year’s biggest stories, and one of EFE’s major journalistic successes, was the death of Pope Francis, the pope of the poor who sought to change the Church with a bold political and social message, and the election, seventeen days later, of Leo XIV, the first American pope, who is also Peruvian. EFE broke the news of Francis’s death ahead of many other media outlets and strengthened its presence in Rome to cover both his funeral — where Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met for the first time since their heated exchange in the Oval Office — and the election of his successor.
We were also in Chiclayo, Peru, where the new pontiff had served as bishop.
2025 was a year of a shift to the right in Latin America. Far-right politician José Antonio Kast won the second round of Chile’s presidential election by a wide margin in December and became the first defender of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973–1989) to come to power since democracy was restored in the Andean country.
And EFE was also there to report on it.
The shift in Chile followed that of Bolivia, where Rodrigo Paz’s victory brought nearly two decades of government by the Movement for Socialism (MAS) to an end, and Honduras, where conservative Nasry Asfura, publicly backed by Trump, was declared the winner of the election after weeks of uncertainty.
In addition, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for leading a coup plot aimed at keeping himself in power after losing the 2022 election to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, an unprecedented ruling in Brazil.
The United States experienced a year marked by litigation against media organisations, during which President Trump toughened measures targeting migrants, asylum seekers and the LGBTI community, while intensifying his actions against those he considers to have harmed his political career.
Meanwhile, the rise of the far right continued in Europe, as did the tightening of migration policies, while Generation Z protests erupted around the world, bringing down governments in Nepal and Madagascar.
Among the scandals that shook 2025, the Epstein case resurfaced with the release of documents linking Donald Trump to the convicted sex offender, while rapper Diddy became embroiled in a sex-trafficking case. The BBC, meanwhile, saw its top executives resign after the manipulated editing of a report about the U.S. president.
EFE also covered the victory of Zohran Mamdani, the young progressive who caused an upset by winning the New York City mayoral election in November; the success of Bad Bunny and his DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS; the deaths of José “Pepe” Mujica, Mario Vargas Llosa and Robert Redford, among others; and Australia’s ban on social media use by children under 16, making it the first country in the world to introduce such a measure.
One of the year’s greatest news challenges was the power outage that affected the Iberian Peninsula on 28 April. EFE was one of the first media outlets to report the incident and provided continuous coverage of its impact on the energy system, infrastructure, mobility, businesses and economic activity, in one of the agency’s largest news operations of the year.
International markets were shaped by the trade war pursued by the United States, economic decisions adopted by Germany, the new European fiscal rules and the monetary policy of the world’s leading central banks. EFE continuously monitored the impact of these developments on stock markets, debt, commodities and major companies.
Gold and silver recorded sharp gains and reached record highs at various points during the year, against a backdrop of international uncertainty and the depreciation of the dollar against the euro, driven in part by expectations of interest rate cuts in the United States.
At the same time, artificial intelligence played a prominent role in stock market performance, particularly through major U.S. technology companies, helping to drive the S&P 500 and Nasdaq higher in several trading sessions, although recurring concerns also emerged over a possible bubble in the sector.
The housing affordability crisis once again occupied a central place on the economic and social agenda. The debate over the tourism model was also prominent in a year in which Spain once again broke records for international visitor numbers, while tensions increased over the pressure placed on certain destinations.
Major corporate developments constituted another key focus of news coverage in 2025. Particularly significant was the reshaping of Telefónica’s shareholder structure, together with a change in the company’s chairmanship, as José María Álvarez-Pallete stepped down and Marc Murtra took over at the helm of the telecommunications operator, marking the beginning of a new strategic phase. EFE also closely followed the situation at Talgo and its search for an industrial partner to secure its future, as well as the growing presence of Chinese car manufacturers in the Spanish market.
Industrial coverage was marked by the momentum gained by Europe’s defence sector, supported by increased strategic spending and Germany’s shift in fiscal policy. Against this backdrop, Spanish companies such as Indra gained particular prominence.
In the financial sector, one of the main stories was BBVA’s takeover bid for Banco Sabadell. EFE broke the news of the conclusions reached by Spain’s National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), reported on the conditions imposed by the Government and interviewed the key figures involved in one of the most significant corporate transactions of recent years.
Macroeconomic coverage also reflected the strength of the Spanish economy, which ended the year with growth of 2.8% and an unemployment rate below 10% for the first time since 2008.
News coverage also included some of the year’s leading economic and technology events, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the International Tourism Trade Fair (Fitur), that yearly takes place in Madrid
Other highlights included interviews with senior institutional figures such as Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Elma Saiz; Minister for Transport and Sustainable Mobility Óscar Puente; Third Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen; former First Deputy Prime Minister Nadia Calviño; and CCOO Secretary-General Unai Sordo. EFE also interviewed prominent business leaders including Globalia and Air Europa Chairman Juan José Hidalgo; Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson; and Fabrizio Favara, who gave EFE his first interview after taking over as Iryo’s chief executive for the second time, having previously served as CEO from 2020 to 2021
2025 tied with 2023 as the second-hottest year on record, with the global average temperature 1.42°C above the pre-industrial average.
Extreme heat was one of the main causes of devastating wildfires in different parts of the world, particularly in the Americas, where more than 437,000 hectares burned in Argentina and more than 40,000 in Guatemala, among other Spanish-speaking countries, as well as more than 85,000 hectares in Southern California.
Fire was not the only devastating force. In Asia, hydrometeorological events intensified, with extreme rainfall and cyclones affecting Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
On the other side of the planet, unusually warm ocean waters contributed to the formation of storms, while Hurricane Melissa struck the Caribbean with considerable force.
On a more positive note, the Global Ocean Treaty was ratified, providing greater protection for marine biodiversity and promoting protected areas to safeguard them against overfishing. Spain was the first EU country to ratify it, and in September the minimum threshold of 60 global ratifications was reached, allowing the treaty to enter into force in January 2026.
Among the year’s other positive developments, Spain ended the year with its highest water reserves in a decade, thanks above all to autumn storms, bringing an end to the extreme drought that had affected Catalonia.
Another piece of good news was confirmation of the recovery of the Iberian lynx. This represents a major conservation success worldwide, as the species came close to extinction thirty years ago, when only around 90 animals remained. Today, more than 2,400 have been recorded across the Iberian Peninsula.
The National Wolf Census was also released, showing growth and stabilisation of the species’ population. However, wolf management has become a source of political and even legal conflict between the central government and the autonomous communities with wolf populations.
On the political front, parliamentary hearings continued over the 2024 DANA floods in Valencia, while the central government proposed a State Pact to Address the Climate Emergency.
Internationally, ten years after the signing of the Paris Agreement, climate summits continued to be held, including COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where, despite the high hopes of environmental groups, no agreement was reached on phasing out fossil fuels.
2025 was also a year of numerous interviews, including one with Daniel Drucker, one of the scientists behind the biological discoveries that enabled the development of a new generation of effective drugs to treat diabetes and obesity, such as Ozempic and Wegovy.
Our reporting described the first map of the developing brain, a key step towards understanding neurological disorders; displays of empathy among bonobos and chimpanzees; and the world’s oldest RNA, extracted for the first time from a woolly mammoth that lived around 40,000 years ago.
We also reported on how “digital twins” have opened up a new frontier in medicine, improving early detection and the personalisation of treatments, as well as on micro- and nanorobots designed to deliver and release drugs at precise locations in the body, helping to avoid side effects.
There were further surprises, including the discovery of previously unimaginable exoplanets, such as one with a climate that not even the finest science-fiction writers could have conceived.
Outer space also gained increasing prominence. We were in Kourou, French Guiana, for the launch of the Biomass satellite, a European Space Agency (ESA) mission to study the world’s forests.
Space reporting gained further importance as the private sector entered the race for the stars with growing confidence. While we contemplated establishing a bureau on the Moon, we reported on the development of new mega-rockets such as Blue Origin’s New Glenn and on Starship test flights.
Undoubtedly, the explosion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across every field was one of the defining developments of 2025. Advanced reasoning models and the growing autonomy of AI agents were among the milestones of a technology that is changing the world and which EFE highlighted extensively in its news coverage.
Miguel Ángel Oliver, President of EFE, and Salvador Gomar, President of the Valencian Football Federation, presided over a tournament that filled the stands of the stadium, which had been devastated by the DANA floods and subsequently rebuilt by Villarreal CF, with the project managed by the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation and support from CA Osasuna, a club once coached by Vicente Moreno, a native of Massanassa.
In addition, Valencian football recognised EFE at the Gala held in Aldaia (Valencia) for the Spanish News Agency EFE’s efforts to raise awareness of the disaster and the subsequent reconstruction of the football pitches affected by the floods.
At the professional level, tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, with eight titles, including two more Grand Slam trophies — Roland Garros and the US Open — was the leading figure in Spanish sport.
EFE’s bureaus in Paris and New York successfully covered both tournaments. EFE once again shone a spotlight on the achievements of women’s sport. At the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, María Pérez claimed a remarkable double crown in the 20 km and 35 km race walks.
The athlete visited EFE’s headquarters following her success: “I’m still the same María who left Orce at the age of 15 in pursuit of a dream.” She also thanked EFE for its efforts in covering her events around the world and bringing her races to a wider audience through text, photography and video.
The world champion 4×400 relay team also visited the Agency and gave a masterclass. Paula Sevilla, Eva Santidrián, Blanca Hervás and Daniela Fra analysed on a giant screen the video of the race that earned them gold at the World Championships in Guangzhou, China, alongside Spanish Athletics Federation President Raúl Chapado.
Linda Caicedo, the Colombian international who plays for Real Madrid, received the EFE Award for the Best Ibero-American Female Player of 2025 in Madrid. Presented by Miguel Ángel Oliver, with Real Madrid representative Emilio Butragueño also in attendance, Caicedo — ranked the leading Latin American player by EFE’s Sports Department — lifted her EFE Trophy in a year in which she had been left heartbroken after Colombia lost the 2025 Copa América final in Quito (Ecuador) to Brazil on penalties.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmatí made history by becoming the first woman to win three Ballon d’Or awards (2023, 2024 and 2025). She and other young female athletes made headlines throughout 2025, including Spain’s rhythmic gymnastics team, led by captain Inés Bergua.
Three gold medals at the European Championships in Tallinn and two at the World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were testament to their success.
It was also a year in which the Sports Department continued to focus on dynamic vertical videos on X, while the EFE brand further consolidated its presence at major forums, including the inaugural Sports Summit Madrid — dubbed the “Davos of Sport” — held at IFEMA – Spain´s premier exhibition area in Madrid-, where the company was an event partner.
The influence of social media made it necessary to adapt to new storytelling formats, bringing about a major change in the way the Agency “tells” the news. A clear example was the coverage of the death of Pope Francis, which was strongly geared towards digital storytelling and in which most client requests were handled through mobile phone connections.
Another of the year’s challenges was keeping the flow of news going on the day of Spain’s “power outage” in April. Despite the technical difficulties, our newsrooms kept the coverage running and we remained a “beacon” for many of our clients.
In terms of news coverage, 2025 was once again a particularly demanding year for photography and video. Coordination among all the bureaus proved crucial to the success of multimedia coverage across a wide range of stories, both in Spain and internationally, spanning politics, the courts, armed conflicts, social affairs, culture and sport.
In June 2025, the website of PHotoESPAÑA, Spain’s leading photography festival and one of the most prestigious in the world, hosted the first virtual exhibition of photographs by the Spanish News Agency EFE, showcasing the full scale of the DANA floods in Valencia through a collection of around fifty images. “DANA. Chronicle of a Tragedy” was a public-private partnership that championed photojournalism, fittingly so given that this edition of the festival explored the relationship between photography and historical events.
The team responsible for publishing content on efe.com from the Madrid and Bogotá desks, as well as managing EFE’s main social media accounts, achieved a number of significant milestones, including:
The EFE Verifica digital fact-checking team enjoyed another successful year in areas such as media literacy, the challenges posed by artificial intelligence and the social impact of disinformation.
In 2025, EFE Verifica launched a major journalistic project, “Fake News, Real Victims”, in collaboration with the Innovation Department and other news departments, including International, National and Audiovisual.
This series of multimedia reports was created to put a human face on the victims of disinformation and illustrate the devastating impact that false information can have on the lives of ordinary people.
The project, comprising a series of 10 reports, six podcasts and 10 documentary videos, began with an episode devoted to the misinformation that circulated during the DANA floods in Valencia in October, entitled “The Flood”.
Another of EFE Verifica major projects during the year was a joint investigation with VerificaRTVE, which analysed more than 115,000 messages to examine how disinformation fuelled violent unrest in Torre Pacheco (Murcia) following a real-life incident.
In 2025, EFE Verifica also helped raise awareness of the risks posed by disinformation, particularly during the 10th International Congress of the Spanish Language in Arequipa, Peru, where the team’s Latin America coordinator, Angélica Rodríguez, explained the risks of “LLM Grooming” — the manipulation of sources to bias AI chatbots — and the proliferation of hyper-realistic videos created using tools such as Google Veo 3.
The head of EFE Verifica, Sergio Hernández, was one of the main speakers at the Huesca Journalism Congress and delivered practical workshops for members of the public and media professionals as part of the IBERIFIER consortium. The team, represented by Digital Content Director Desirée García, also played a prominent role in the Media Literacy Conference organised by the Carlos III University.
EFEminista consolidated its role throughout 2025 as a specialised feminist news platform focusing on human rights, equality and the fight against gender-based violence. Over the course of the year, the platform strengthened its commitment to new forms of storytelling through rigorous, multimedia, public-service journalism, producing content for the web, social media and new digital formats.
One of the year’s key milestones was its collaboration with Spain’s Women’s Institute to produce digital and multimedia content from a gender perspective. As part of this initiative, EFEminista produced explanatory videos and in-depth articles on issues such as appearance-based discrimination and pressure, the 40th anniversary of the decriminalisation of abortion in Spain, online misogyny, sexist content in video games, digital violence against young women and gender bias in artificial intelligence. This work helped bring informative and educational content on equality and women’s rights closer to the public, particularly younger audiences.
The special features produced each year by the EFEminista team to mark International Women’s Day on 8 March (8M) and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November (25N) were also consolidated as a major focus of its coverage. In 2025, the 8M special examined the erosion of the rights of women and girls amid the rise of the far right and anti-feminist movements in various countries. The 25N special focused on the role of art and culture as tools for highlighting and denouncing gender-based violence.
These projects have helped strengthen EFEminista distinctive, recognisable and pioneering approach within journalism specialising in equality, with reports and perspectives that resonate with audiences, help shape the news agenda and subsequently inspire similar content in other media outlets.
This momentum was further strengthened by the launch of ‘Sin Permiso’, EFEminista newsletter, which has already surpassed 2,000 subscribers and opened up a new channel for direct engagement with its community of readers.
The specialised portal focused its efforts in 2025 on analysing the global healthcare landscape through a historical perspective and medical journalism aimed at the general public.
To mark the fifth anniversary of the lockdown, EFE Salud published its first multimedia special: a dedicated site entitled “The COVID Pandemic, Five Years Later”. The project, designed jointly with the Digital Content, Development and Documentation departments, included testimonies from professionals who were on the front line of the pandemic, an in-depth analysis of future pandemic threats, interactive timelines and data on the pandemic’s global impact.
2025 also marked a change in leadership at EFE Salud, which until then had been founded and headed by journalist Javier Tovar. In May, Ángel Alonso was appointed head of the specialised portal and embarked on two main initiatives: firstly, revamping the website to improve navigation and refresh its identity; and secondly, strengthening its presence on social media, particularly Instagram and YouTube, leading to the planning and development of new products and formats.
In line with the emphasis on these new forms of storytelling, on 19 October, World Breast Cancer Day, EFE Salud published a multimedia special — sponsored for the first time — on the incidence of these types of tumours among young women. The integration of text, infographics and audiovisual formats, together with the approach adopted on social media, earned the project one of the 2025 awards presented by the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain.
The global environmental journalism platform reaffirmed its position in 2025 as a leading international Spanish-language source, in a year marked by recognition and a historic leadership transition.
2025 saw the departure of its founder and a leading figure in Spanish environmental journalism, Arturo Larena, who concluded a 36-year career at the Spanish News Agency EFE. Larena, who was recognised this year as a European Climate Pact Ambassador and received Spain’s National Environment Award, leaves behind a legacy that includes the creation and promotion of nearly a dozen scholarship programmes that have helped more than one hundred young journalists specialise in environmental reporting.
In 2025, a total of 952,545 news items were added to our database. Throughout the year, the database’s content and current-affairs topics were updated and expanded on a daily basis. Significantly, more than 900 timelines, documents and biographies were distributed through the various news services produced by EFE Data. We also continued to produce multimedia packages dedicated to the most significant anniversary or historical event commemorated each day.
In 2025, 767,132 photographs were documented.
Burgos, 28th of April 2025 — “Your Collective Memory” photographic exhibition in Burgos.
Ávila, 12 of May 2025 — “El Descanso: 40 Years Since Spain’s First Major Jihadist Terrorist Attack” exhibition.
Madrid, 3rd of June 2025 — Virtual exhibition “DANA. Chronicle of a Tragedy” on the PHotoESPAÑA website.
Madrid, 14th of July 2025 — “Zhivago Station: 60 Years Since an Epic Film Shoot” exhibition at the Madrid Railway Museum.
Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), 20th of July 2025 — Photographic exhibition marking the 85th anniversary of the Spanish News Agency EFE at the Museum of the Royal Houses in the Dominican Republic.
Toledo, 29th of September 2025 — The Spanish News Agency EFE in Castile-La Mancha commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Spanish News Agency EFE’s presence in Castile-La Mancha.
León, 3rd of December 2025 — “León in Transition: The First Steps of Democracy” exhibition.
Tétouan (Morocco), 10th of December 2025 — Exhibition on the historic Atlético Tetuán football club.
Buenos Aires (Argentina), 4th of December 2025 — “Witnesses to History”, marking the 60th anniversary of the Spanish News Agency EFE in Argentina
In 2025, a total of 126,462 videos were added to EFE Servicios, of which 87,624 were raw footage
In 2025, 9,177 feature reports were downloaded.
The Journalism School of the Spanish News Agency EFE (EFE School of Journalism) consolidated its position in 2025 as an international benchmark for the specialised training of young professionals, in a year marked by stronger university partnerships, the expansion of its global scholarship programmes and a far-reaching methodological adaptation aimed at responding to the information challenges posed by the digital age and misinformation.
The Master’s Degree in News Agency Journalism, taught jointly with Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M), began its twenty-fifth edition in November with an opening ceremony that provided an opportunity to reaffirm the role of rigorous journalism as a fundamental pillar of the democratic system.
The 2025 academic intake reflected a strong Ibero-American and global outlook, welcoming students from countries including Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, thanks to the institutional support of organisations such as the Carolina Foundation, which increased the number of scholarship recipients on the Master’s programme to three this year. Further evidence of the programme’s growing prestige was the participation of its students in the Cotec Foundation’s 2025 Yearbook, which was presented at a gala where King Felipe VI highlighted the students’ work in his address.
The Master’s Degree in Transmedia Journalism, taught by the EFE School of Journalism in partnership with the UNED, strengthened its curriculum this year by incorporating subjects on artificial intelligence (AI) and updating its content on fact-checking journalism. In 2025, the programme welcomed two journalists from Nicaragua and El Salvador through the Carolina Foundation’s Human Rights Programme.
2025 marked a quantitative and qualitative milestone in the management of internships, a highly operational area in which the EFE School of Journalism coordinated more than fifty sponsored placements in partnership with major companies and institutions. This model, based on the negotiation of agreements and rigorous financial oversight, included collaboration with leading organisations such as SGAE, Ecoembes, CNAT, WWF, Signus, Sigre and APIA–Oriva, each offering specific training plans aimed at developing journalistic specialisation in key areas of current affairs.
The scholarship programme run by EFE and the ”la Caixa” Foundation launched its 21st edition in November, recognised as one of the leading scholarship programmes in Spanish-language journalism. The presentation of the new edition brought together former scholarship recipients at an event held at CaixaForum Madrid, where they highlighted the programme’s contribution to training journalists who now hold senior positions at various media organisations and institutions.
Specific agreements with major companies in the technology and visual sectors, such as Canon, encouraged the development of new forms of storytelling in photojournalism and multimedia journalism.
The EFE School of Journalism further expanded its international reach and global talent recruitment in 2025 through its participation in the ICEX Vives programme, a key strategic initiative launched in 2023. Through this programme, the EFE School of Journalism assumed responsibility for the comprehensive administrative management and logistical monitoring of 33 international placements at bureaus across Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. The initiative provides young professionals aged between 18 and 30 with training in cross-border, non-employment environments.
Agreements with Colombian universities were also expanded to support the training of young professionals through the three EFE Americas scholarships awarded annually at the Bogotá bureau.
As part of its responsibility for coordinating the company’s internal training policy, the EFE School of Journalism was responsible for creating and managing the Spanish News Agency EFE’s Annual Training Plan.
The year was characterised by the prioritisation of specific, targeted and shorter training activities structured in modular formats. This optimised approach made it possible to respond quickly to employees’ changing needs and habits, resulting in a 56.3% increase in the number of people trained compared with the previous year and significantly expanding the programme’s overall reach and participation. Particularly noteworthy was the increase in women’s participation, which rose from 49.51% in 2024 to 51.25% in 2025 overall.
At the technical level, AI training attracted the highest level of participation, with 581 employees receiving training. This cross-cutting initiative was crucial in supporting the Agency’s digital transformation through modules tailored to editorial, multimedia, fact-checking and management profiles. It was complemented by other strategic subjects aimed at fostering innovation and adaptation to today’s digital channels, such as mobile journalism (MoJo).
The 2025 programme combined technical upskilling with content of significant social, ethical and operational value to the organisation. Particularly noteworthy were the wide-ranging initiatives on LGBTI awareness in the workplace, which directly contribute to creating inclusive environments and improving the quality of journalistic coverage.
