News agencies
The most important news agency in Spain is EFE, publicly owned and founded in 1939. By volume of production and outreach, it is the world’s leading news agency in Spanish. It has contracted journalists and collaborators in more than a hundred countries, who are coordinated through four publishing boards: in Madrid, Bogota, Cairo and Rio de Janeiro (EFE, 2017). Within Spain, the second most important agency is Europe Press, first of the private agencies, founded in 1957. It is followed by Colpisa, linked to the Vocento Group.
There are also a number of regional agencies: Agencia Aragonesa de Noticias (Aragon), ACN Press (Canary Islands), ICAL (Castela and León), Agència Catalana de Notícies (Catalonia) and Axencia Galega de Noticias (Galicia). Until 2015 there was also an agency in the Basque Country, called Vasco Press, but it closed due to economic losses.
There are also a number of specialised agencies. Some are specialised by media (for example, television agencies or Internet producers), and others by topic (many are devoted to gossip).