News writers are responsible for creating written materials for newspapers, online news websites, and other media outlets. Their main goals are to produce high-quality and accurate content about current events. As such, their job usually requires them to travel to different locations, pursue leads, find fact sources, conduct interviews, and research their piece.
When you are a news writer, you will typically have a pen and notebook with you at all times. Other common tools for this trade include a handheld recorder, a camera, and a laptop to conduct research or write stories on the go.
When hiring a news writer, most employers prefer candidates with a degree in journalism, which is usually the best background to have for this line of work. However, graduates of communications or English degrees may also qualify. In terms of work experience, smaller companies may not require it, but larger companies definitely do to ensure credibility.
A news writer can make around $48,000 per year, on average. Employers also usually provide allowances for work-related travel expenses.
What is a News Writer?
What Does a News Writer Do
There are certain skills that many news writers 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 computer skills, persistence and communication skills.
How To Become a News Writer
If you're interested in becoming a news writer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 81.4% of news writers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 8.7% of news writers have master's degrees. Even though most news writers have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
News Writer 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, a news writer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as writer and editor, progress to a title such as consultant and then eventually end up with the title director of communications and marketing.
Average Salary for a News Writer
What Am I Worth?
States With The Most News Writer Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active news writer jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where news writers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of News Writer Jobs By State
Top Colleges for News Writers
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 a News Writer
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, 17.2% of news writers listed news articles on their resume, but soft skills such as computer skills and persistence are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable News Writer Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use News Writer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your News Writer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
News Writer Demographics
News Writer Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among news writers, 54.9% of them are women, while 45.1% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among news writers is White, which makes up 71.3% of all news writers.
- The most common foreign language among news writers is Spanish at 48.2%.
Work Experience Programs For News Writers
Virtual work experience programs replicate work at top companies and help you gain the skills to be successful when applying and working there. In only a few hours, learn the relevant tools necessary to complete a typical work day at that company. Virtual work experience programs are 100% free, open-access, and self-paced. No experience or application is required!
Company: Accenture UK
Cost: Free
Duration: 5-6 hours
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Best States For a News Writer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a news writer. The best states for people in this position are New York, New Jersey, Vermont, and Maine. News writers make the most in New York with an average salary of $64,654. Whereas in New Jersey and Vermont, they would average $62,973 and $59,585, respectively. While news writers would only make an average of $59,371 in Maine, 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. New York
$64,654
Avg. Salary
2. Vermont
$59,585
Avg. Salary
3. District of Columbia
$61,765
Avg. Salary
How Do News Writer Rate Their Jobs?
Top News Writer Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ news writers and discovered their number of news writer opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Fox was the best, especially with an average salary of $51,076. CBS follows up with an average salary of $41,329, and then comes CNN with an average of $42,798. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a news writer. The employers include The Walt Disney Company, Paramount, and Screen Rant
Most Common Employers For News Writer
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bloomberg | $89,002 | $42.79 | 5 |
| 2 | TechTarget | $78,775 | $37.87 | 5 |
| 3 | The Daily Free Press | $52,599 | $25.29 | 5 |
| 4 | Fox News | $51,076 | $24.56 | 19 |
| 5 | Bleacher Report | $50,593 | $24.32 | 10 |
| 6 | The Daily Cardinal | $50,113 | $24.09 | 6 |
| 7 | NBCUniversal | $48,882 | $23.50 | 4 |
| 8 | iHeartMedia | $46,669 | $22.44 | 5 |
| 9 | FanSided | $46,358 | $22.29 | 7 |
| 10 | Boston Magazine | $43,914 | $21.11 | 7 |
News Writer Videos
