Investigative reporter vs content writer

The differences between investigative reporters and content writers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both an investigative reporter and a content writer. Additionally, an investigative reporter has an average salary of $65,230, which is higher than the $58,918 average annual salary of a content writer.

The top three skills for an investigative reporter include investigative journalism, investigative stories and facebook. The most important skills for a content writer are digital marketing, wordpress, and web content.

Investigative reporter vs content writer overview

	Investigative Reporter	Content Writer
Yearly salary	$65,230	$58,918
Hourly rate	$31.36	$28.33
Growth rate	-10%	4%
Number of jobs	10,813	19,621
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 75%	Bachelor's Degree, 77%
Average age	40	42
Years of experience	2	2

What does an investigative reporter do?

An investigative reporter is a journalist who performs extensive research and analysis to build facts and current events into news stories. To make this possible, they must pursue leads relating to their subject, conduct interviews with witnesses or the people involved, travel to different places to gather pieces of evidence and other source materials, take videos or photographs, and coordinate with experts such as lawyers and doctors when necessary. Moreover, an investigative reporter must keep up with the latest trends in establishing news structures and news writing.

What does a content writer do?

The job of content writers is to create the best possible written or visual content ranging from blog posts to press releases. They produce the content for various types of websites, including social networks, news aggregators, and e-commerce sites. The job of content writers is not limited to writing, but also ensuring that the content connects or is relevant to the website pages. They are expected to set the tone of the website and revise the content upon customers' or clients' requests. They are also responsible for assisting in the creation of style guides.

Investigative reporter vs content writer salary

Investigative reporters and content writers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Investigative Reporter	Content Writer
Average salary	$65,230	$58,918
Salary range	Between $40,000 And $104,000	Between $40,000 And $84,000
Highest paying City	New York, NY	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	New York	California
Best paying company	HSBC Bank	Cisco
Best paying industry	Finance	Finance

Differences between investigative reporter and content writer education

There are a few differences between an investigative reporter and a content writer in terms of educational background:

	Investigative Reporter	Content Writer
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 75%	Bachelor's Degree, 77%
Most common major	Journalism	English
Most common college	Northwestern University	Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Investigative reporter vs content writer demographics

Here are the differences between investigative reporters' and content writers' demographics:

	Investigative Reporter	Content Writer
Average age	40	42
Gender ratio	Male, 49.0% Female, 51.0%	Male, 39.8% Female, 60.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 12.7% Asian, 8.6% White, 67.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3%	Black or African American, 6.0% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 7.8% Asian, 5.0% White, 75.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	10%	16%

Differences between investigative reporter and content writer duties and responsibilities

Investigative reporter example responsibilities.

Report to managing editor as member of editorial staff, contribute to newspaper editorials.
Produce and edit clips for the newspaper website.
Perform employment, educational, mvr, and professional reference/license checks.
Edit video tape to create packages, perform on camera and in voiceovers.
Produce videos for DeSmogBlog including longer investigative pieces and short Facebook pieces design to be share.
Create headlines for print as well as headlines for the web that are search engine optimize (SEO).

Content writer example responsibilities.

Implement and manage Salesforce and Marketo for client to establish lead nurturing campaigns.
Maintain guest blogging strategy and policies to achieve a consistently diverse authorship and to grow readership.
Manage the editorial production of the pamphlets, brochures and graphic material to target worldwide audiences including china.
Manage proposal process from RFP (request for proposal) receipt to writing and editing various contributions to final RFP submission.
Collaborate with overseas team and manage documents using SharePoint to conceptualize and generate new marketing content.
Produce a wide array of literature ranging from poetry to short stories.

Investigative reporter vs content writer skills

Common investigative reporter skills

Investigative Journalism, 23%
Investigative Stories, 14%
Facebook, 10%
Story Development, 7%
News Coverage, 6%
Public Service, 6%

Common content writer skills

Digital Marketing, 10%
WordPress, 9%
Web Content, 6%
Blog Posts, 6%
Digital Content, 3%
Content Marketing, 3%

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Investigative Reporter
Investigative Reporter vs Content Writer

Updated January 8, 2025

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