Annual Salary
£24,000 to £45,000
Average UK salary in 2023 was £34,963
(source Office for National Statistics)
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Swap to Data & network or Software & systems or go back to all job sectors
Newspaper or magazine journalists write articles and stories for local, regional, national and online publications.
Average UK salary in 2023 was £34,963
(source Office for National Statistics)
You could work: evenings / weekends / bank holidays; flexibly
There will be
2.4% more Newspaper or magazine journalist jobs in 2027.
As a newspaper or magazine journalist, you could:
You could work in an office, visit sites or from home.
Your working environment may be emotionally demanding and you'll travel often.
You can get into this job through:
You can take a degree course as a first step towards this career. Relevant subjects include:
Some courses are accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Graduates of other subjects can do a postgraduate course in journalism, lasting 1 to 2 years.
You'll usually need:
You could do a college course, which would teach you some of the skills and knowledge you need to get a trainee journalist position or to study at a higher level. Courses include:
Some colleges offer the Level 3 Certificate in Foundation Journalism and courses in shorthand, accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ).
You could apply for a place on an apprenticeship with a media organisation, such as:
These usually take between 1 and 2 years to complete.
You could start as an office assistant or trainee reporter on a local or regional newspaper, or junior feature writer for a magazine.
You'll need a minimum of five GCSE grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), including English, or equivalent qualifications. Many recruits have A levels or a degree.
There is strong competition for jobs, and you'll need to show you've got writing experience. You'll find it useful to keep examples of your published work, especially if these include your name as the author.
To build up your writing experience you can:
You can study for a number of professional qualifications in journalism at different levels, accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). These can be done online, part-time or through fast-track training.
The NCTJ also offer online and short courses like:
You may be able to get help with funding for certain NCTJ courses through the Journalism Diversity Fund.
It'll be useful for producing online content if you can:use search engine optimisation (SEO) methods; develop skills in basic HTML; get experience of using different social media platforms
As a journalism student you can apply for student membership of the National Union of Journalists.
You can find out more about working in journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ).
As your career develops, you might specialise in a particular field, such as:sport; politics; business and finance; investigative journalism; fashion or lifestyle
With experience, you could become a chief reporter, features writer or editor at a newspaper, magazine or press agency. You could also work freelance.
You could also move into other areas, such as broadcast journalism, communications or public relations.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has more careers information.
You'll need: