EFE news agency shows its information model to the Leaders

Founded in 1939, the EFE News Agency will celebrate its 87th anniversary next February as the world’s leading Spanish-language news agency. With a staff of more than 1,100 employees, EFE maintains a global presence through correspondents in over 120 countries, allowing it to provide news coverage from every continent. Since its beginnings, the agency has evolved into a multimedia provider that spans print, radio, television, and the internet.

José Manuel Sanz Mingote, Director of Institutional Relations at EFE, and Cristina Ozaeta, Senior Editor —who had already met the Leaders at a luncheon the previous day— were responsible for presenting the agency’s history and operations.

Like other companies in strategic sectors, EFE is part of the state-owned holding SEPI (Spanish State Industrial Holdings Company). SEPI holds majority stakes in fourteen companies, ten affiliates, and around one hundred indirect subsidiaries. Among the first is the news agency, of which the State owns 100% of the capital.

In terms of its structure, EFE has a presence in Spain’s 17 autonomous communities, as well as in Ceuta and Melilla. The most important domestic delegations are located in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and the Basque Country. Internationally, EFE operates in 180 cities across 110 countries, employing around 400 staff —including journalists and administrative personnel— abroad, and another 700 in Spain, totaling 1,100 employees. This makes EFE one of the country’s largest employers of journalists, second only to RTVE.

The Leaders were particularly interested in EFE’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region. Sanz Mingote explained that the main regional bureau is located in Bangkok, although the agency also has offices in Tokyo, Beijing, and New Delhi, as well as correspondents in all major cities. In Australia, EFE maintains a bureau in Sydney. The agency produces content in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and Arabic, ensuring wide linguistic reach. In Spain, it also provides news in Catalan.

In addition, the Director of Institutional Relations explained that EFE is the main shareholder of the European Pressphoto Agency (EPA), an initiative involving the national agencies of eight countries: Greece, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, and Spain. “This agency supplies us with photos, videos, and increasingly, information,” he noted.

Following a question about EFE’s Francoist origins —the agency was founded shortly before the end of the Spanish Civil War— Sanz Mingote clarified a lesser-known fact: EFE was not originally a public entity, but a private company financed by Spanish banks that decided to invest in the project. Later, in the late 1950s, the State acquired a majority share, although part of the capital remained privately owned. This mixed structure lasted until Spain’s democratic transition, when the agency became fully state-owned. Since then, EFE has been under the supervision of the Office of the Prime Minister and later formally integrated into SEPI.

For this reason, Sanz Mingote explained, EFE is subject to oversight by the Spanish Parliament, the Court of Auditors, the General Intervention Board of the State Administration (IGAE), and the European Commission. Brussels has officially recognized EFE as a Service of General Economic Interest (SGEI), a status that allows public enterprises to engage in commercial activities within a liberalized market while receiving state funding. This status is comparable to that of postal services or certain public transport systems. The reason: EFE performs essential informational functions, such as maintaining its foreign network, which are not profitable but are of public interest. In Europe, there are only two agencies with this recognition: EFE itself and the French AFP, which was the first to obtain it.

Therefore, EFE does not receive direct subsidies from the EU but a regulated state compensation authorized by the European Commission. To receive it, the agency must regularly report and justify the use of these funds, which amount to around 54 million euros —a figure that, as Latika M. Bourke pointed out, is not significant within the State’s overall budget.

The conversation then turned to the agency’s editorial line. When asked whether EFE faced accusations of bias —as happens with institutions such as the BBC or the ABC— Sanz Mingote said that this was not usually the case. In fact, he recalled, “When the current president, Miguel Ángel Oliver, appeared before Parliament for his appointment, he received the approval of the left and the abstention of the right,” something unprecedented in the agency’s recent history. Moreover, EFE’s fundamental principles include the absence of ideological orientation, a commitment to factual accuracy, consultation of all sources, rejection of manipulation, and respect for professional ethics.

In recent years, EFE has developed free-access portals aimed at the general public to diversify its sources of revenue. Among the most notable are EFE Verde, EFE Salud, EFEminista, and EFE Verifica, a fact-checking service inspired by a pioneering AFP initiative.

Among the internal mechanisms that ensure journalistic independence and professional standards, Sanz Mingote highlighted the Editorial Council, a collegial body elected every two years by the agency’s own journalists, whose mission is to ensure compliance with the Editorial Charter and the company’s code of ethics.

EFE also has its own Stylebook, which serves as an essential guide for all agency journalists, defining writing standards, ethical principles, and linguistic guidelines. It also publishes the Manual of Urgent Spanish, a joint initiative with the Royal Spanish Academy designed to resolve doubts about the use of Spanish —not only among journalists, but also students, companies, and other users.

When asked which variety of Spanish the agency uses, Sanz Mingote explained that EFE employs an international standard Spanish, based on Castilian but sensitive to Latin American linguistic particularities.

Looking ahead, he concluded, EFE aims to expand its presence in the corporate sector through the development of specialized products and services. This diversification, he acknowledged, is a challenge but essential for the company’s growth: “We want to be considered the fourth most important news agency in the world —not only in terms of staff size, but also in terms of influence.” This goal is not an easy one, he added, since “competition is very tough,” although EFE believes it leads the Spanish-speaking market in this regard.

After the meeting, the Leaders had the opportunity to visit EFE’s image archive, which houses numerous historically significant documents dating back even before 1939, the year of its founding. The visit concluded with a tour of the agency’s various departments, including the editorial and coordination rooms.

Meeting attendees:

José Manuel Sanz Mingote: Director of International Relations at Agencia EFE

Cristina Ozaeta: Senior Editor at Agencia EFE

Ver el Resumen del Programa en PDF