An Anchor or a news anchor is responsible for informing the public by reporting events and news stories. You are responsible for educating the public on what's happening locally or around the world. You will be reporting on-air while interacting with reporters. You will also be tasked to gather, verify, and analyze data and information from different sources.
As an Anchor, you need to have great research skills. You are to find information on specific topics and filter out the best and most relevant information among all types of information you get. Next is speaking skills. Of course, as an Anchor, you will be talking a lot. Therefore, you should know what words to speak and how to deliver the news in order for the audience to easily understand your report. Next is writing skills. Aside from speaking, you will also be writing, and you should be able to do this efficiently. You need to be able to express yourself verbally and in writing clearly.
You can earn an annual average salary of $87,867 as an Anchor. You will also have the chance to take on other roles through the years. You can be an Executive Producer, a Consultant, a Marketing Manager, and a Director of Communications and Marketing.
How to Become an Anchor
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an anchor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $29.25 an hour? That's $60,848 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -10% and produce -5,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Anchor Do
There are certain skills that many anchors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed research skills, speaking skills and writing skills.
How To Become an Anchor
If you're interested in becoming an anchor, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 66.3% of anchors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 6.4% of anchors have master's degrees. Even though most anchors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an anchor. When we researched the most common majors for an anchor, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on anchor resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an anchor. In fact, many anchor jobs require experience in a role such as reporter. Meanwhile, many anchors also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or cashier.
Anchor Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an anchor can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as executive producer, progress to a title such as consultant and then eventually end up with the title director of communications and marketing.
Average Salary for an Anchor
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Anchors
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA • Private
2. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
4. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
5. University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA • Private
6. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
7. California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA • Private
8. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
9. Emory University
Atlanta, GA • Private
10. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Private
Top Skills For an Anchor
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 31.3% of anchors listed news stories on their resume, but soft skills such as research skills and speaking skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Anchor Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Anchor templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Anchor resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Anchor Demographics
Anchor Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among anchors, 44.1% of them are women, while 55.9% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among anchors is White, which makes up 71.2% of all anchors.
- The most common foreign language among anchors is Spanish at 60.0%.
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Best States For an Anchor
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an anchor. The best states for people in this position are Vermont, New Jersey, Ohio, and Michigan. Anchors make the most in Vermont with an average salary of $84,996. Whereas in New Jersey and Ohio, they would average $82,578 and $79,083, respectively. While anchors would only make an average of $78,200 in Michigan, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Vermont
$84,996
Avg. Salary
2. New Jersey
$82,578
Avg. Salary
3. Oregon
$72,527
Avg. Salary
How Do Anchor Rate Their Jobs?
Top Anchor Employers
Most Common Employers For Anchor
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Citi | $148,982 | $71.63 | 3 |
| 2 | Nationwide | $90,218 | $43.37 | 2 |
| 3 | Ford Motor | $82,318 | $39.58 | 32 |
| 4 | Bloomberg | $80,618 | $38.76 | 7 |
| 5 | Update Legal | $79,243 | $38.10 | 2 |
| 6 | Northern Tool + Equipment | $74,897 | $36.01 | 3 |
| 7 | Staffing.com | $74,430 | $35.78 | 2 |
| 8 | Lamina | $73,457 | $35.32 | 3 |
| 9 | Boston Magazine | $73,129 | $35.16 | 4 |
| 10 | ESPN | $71,488 | $34.37 | 5 |
Anchor Videos
