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The differences between journalists 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 a journalist and a content writer. Additionally, a journalist has an average salary of $60,828, which is higher than the $58,918 average annual salary of a content writer.
The top three skills for a journalist include news stories, multimedia and story development. The most important skills for a content writer are digital marketing, wordpress, and web content.
| Journalist | Content Writer | |
| Yearly salary | $60,828 | $58,918 |
| Hourly rate | $29.24 | $28.33 |
| Growth rate | -10% | 4% |
| Number of jobs | 11,488 | 19,621 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 77% |
| Average age | 40 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A journalist is responsible for creating written correspondence, covering various subjects as the management requires. This task involves a lot of research investigations, conducting interviews, and gathering reliable sources to verify the authenticity of data before releasing the articles on news portals and other social platforms. Journalists should have excellent communication skills, both written and oral, conveying information to the target audience with high accuracy and efficiency. They analyze opinions and testimonies, create eye-catching headlines, and ensure adherence to deadlines.
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.
Journalists and content writers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Journalist | Content Writer | |
| Average salary | $60,828 | $58,918 |
| Salary range | Between $38,000 And $95,000 | Between $40,000 And $84,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | New York | California |
| Best paying company | Bloomberg | Cisco |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a journalist and a content writer in terms of educational background:
| Journalist | Content Writer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 77% |
| Most common major | Journalism | English |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Here are the differences between journalists' and content writers' demographics:
| Journalist | Content Writer | |
| Average age | 40 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 46.6% Female, 53.4% | Male, 39.8% Female, 60.2% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 12.6% Asian, 9.6% White, 66.8% 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% |