Happy anniversary, EFE!

Today, 13th of February, the main news agency in Spanish, EFE, celebrates its 75th anniversary. This post is very special for me because I had the honour to work for EFE a few years ago.

I am not going to write about the story of EFE along the years. If you search on the Internet, you can find a lot of information. This time I am going to write about my experience.

In 2002 I was still studying and I decided to do further practice. They gave me the opportunity to work for EFE as an intern for the Financial section. I remember I was scared because I thought I wasn’t ready to work for this section. I also have to say that I really wasn’t very interested, but everything changed when I started working there.

They were only four months, but they were great. I learnt a lot, specially from Marcos Lamelas, a great journalist who is always after the news. In the end I really enjoyed my time there and many times I wondered what would have happened had I accepted the offer they made me when I finished my university career. I will never know.

After a few years working for Blanc i Blau, on November 2005 I received a phone call from Javier Giraldo, who was working for EFE at the time, asking me to have a meeting with Paco Ávila, the sport division manager. I became RCD Espanyol correspondent and I helped with everything I could (Barcelona, handball, basketball...).

I worked for them until July 2010. It was really great. I wrote about some of the best stories of the team even though they left me out of important moments like the Spanish Cup final or the UEFA final. I worked hard and I think I did quite well. My time there was very important in my career.

If I could, I would like to work for EFE again. The news agency gives you the opportunity to explain stories and even though times are changing, you don’t have the same pressure. When you write in a newspaper you have to empty full pages; there is no negotiation and, a lot of times, you finish writing about stupid stories to fill up the empty page. In a news agency you can really write about those piece of news interesting; it is different.

I will never forget my experience at the Agencia EFE. I really enjoyed my time with Paco, Jesús, Ginés, Alex, Javi and all the people that made possible that the sports section worked so well. I know that now things are difficult and they have their problems, but who doesn’t?

Happy anniversary!