The Datum Report

Occupation 2492 · Professional occupations

Newspaper and periodical broadcast journalists and reporters

Half of full-time newspaper and periodical broadcast journalists and reporters in the UK earn more than £44,534 a year, and half earn less.

Newspaper and periodical broadcast journalists and reporters investigate and write up stories and features for broadcasting and for newspapers, magazines, news website and other periodicals.

How people enter it

Entrants usually possess a degree or equivalent qualification. A variety of postgraduate diplomas is available. Vocational qualifications covering various aspects of journalism are available at levels 3 and 4.

What the work involves

• determines subject matter and undertakes research by interviewing, attending public events, seeking out records, reviewing written work, attending film and stage performances etc
• responds to stories as they break
• writes articles and features and submits draft manuscripts to newspaper, magazine, new website, periodical or programme editor
• engage with the public and disseminate news stories, lifestyle and opinion pieces through social media
• builds contacts in their field to ensure a supply of news
• sub-edits other journalists' stories

Also called

Broadcast journalist · Digital journalist · Journalist · Online journalist · Radio journalist · Reporter · Writer (newspaper publishing)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for newspaper and periodical broadcast journalists and reporters, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 5 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Advertising accounts managers and creative directors · Newspaper, periodical and broadcast editors · Public relations professionals