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Staff reporter resume examples from 2026

Zippi

Land interviews using Zippia's AI-powered resume builder.

Updated March 26, 2025
6 min read
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How to write a staff reporter resume

Craft a resume summary statement

A well-written resume summary is basically an elevator pitch. You are summing up your skills and experience in a few sentences to wow recruiters, hiring managers, and decision makers into giving you an interview. Here are some tips to putting your best foot first with your resume summary:

Step 1: Start with your current job title, or the one you aspire to. Are you a passionate manager? A skilled analyst? It's a good starting point.

Step 2: Next put your years of experience in staff reporter-related roles.

Step 3: Now is the time to put your biggest accomplishment or something you are professionally proud of.

Step 4: Read over what you have written. It should be 2-4 sentences. Your goal is to summarize your experience, not recite your resume.

These four steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some staff reporter interviews.

Please upload your resume so Zippia’s job hunt AI can draft a summary statement for you.

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List the right project manager skills

Your Skills section is a place to list all relevant skills and abilities. Here is how to make the most of your skills section and make sure you have the right keywords:

  1. Start with the job listing. Frequently, the keywords looked for by recruiters will be listed. Be careful to include all skills in the job listing you have experience with.
  2. Consider all the software and tools you use on a daily basis. When in doubt, list them!
  3. Make sure you use accurate and up to date terms for all the skills listed.
These five steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some staff reporter interviews.

Here are example skills to include in your “Area of Expertise” on a staff reporter resume:

  • News Stories
  • Event Coverage
  • Feature Stories
  • News Articles
  • Conduct Interviews
  • Local Government
  • Photography
  • Press Releases
  • Facebook
  • Adobe Indesign
  • Twitter
  • Community Events
  • Human Interest Stories
  • Local Events
  • Editorials
  • Local News
  • Writing Articles
  • Hard News
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Real Estate
  • Press Conferences
  • Opinion Pieces
  • Social Issues
  • Government Officials
  • Environmental Issues
  • County Government
  • Law Enforcement
  • General News
  • Editorial Content
  • Public Officials

Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.

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How to structure your work experience

Next you should include your work experience. Structure your work experience section by listing your most recent experience first, followed by earlier roles in reverse chronological order.

Start with your job title, company name, city, and state on the left. Align dates in month and year format on the right-hand side.

Include only recent, relevant jobs. Avoid including work experience over 20 years to avoid ageism.

Beneath each job, you should have bullet points to emphasize why you're the perfect fit for the staff reporter.

How to write staff reporter experience bullet points

Remember, your resume is not a list of responsibilities or a job description. This is your chance to show why you're good at your job and what you accomplished.

Use the XYZ formula for your work experience bullet points. Here's how it works:

  • Use strong action verbs like Led, Built, or Optimized.
  • Follow up with numbers when possible to support your results. How much did performance improve? How much revenue did you drive?
  • Wrap it up by explaining the actions you took to achieve the result and how you made an impact.

This creates bullet points that read Achieved X, measured by Y, by doing Z.

Here are great bullet points from staff reporter resumes:

Work history example #1

Newspaper Reporter

Comcast

  • Downloaded and edited photographs using Adobe Photoshop.
  • Developed user-friendly graphics for translating complex weather messages both on-air and off-camera.
  • Designed newspaper page layouts using Adobe QuarkXPress publishing software and Adobe Photoshop.
  • Created compelling, on topic headlines with an eye toward SEO best practices.
  • Filed stories and also served as Fill-in Anchor

Work history example #2

Staff Writer

The New York Times Company

  • Covered NFL, MLB, NBA, NASCAR and general sports news events for as Dallas-based free-lance reporter.
  • Promoted The Mash by posting recent published articles on Facebook and Twitter to gain more traffic to the publication.
  • Reported six major front-page stories while covering breaking news events involving technology or the Internet.
  • Covered food, fashion, home, seniors, and general lifestyle topics.
  • Updated Sun-Times Media Wire's social media presence via Twitter and Facebook.

Work history example #3

Staff Reporter

Cumulus Media

  • Developed a strong following on Twitter.
  • Developed new channels for interaction with readers including a Friday night football Twitter feed and an enhanced social media presence.
  • Monitored wires and ABCNEWS reporting; updated homepage copy as needed.
  • Innovated features for the Cabinet's Facebook page including writing about a new, interesting Kentucky business every day.
  • Gathered news and promoted articles and videos, utilizing Facebook and other social media.

Work history example #4

News Assistant

Daily Press

  • Covered multiple topics, including healthcare, education, breaking crime stories and nonprofits in the Hampton Roads region.
  • Coordinated coverage of a water rescue that was featured nationally, including The Today Show and CNN.
  • Used social media as a way to interact with sources and followers and incorporates Twitter and Facebook into newsgathering and reporting.
  • Managed New York Times National s Twitter account.
  • Garnered over 13,000 Twitter followers who routinely shared stories from across the globe.

Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.

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Add an education section to your resume

Here is the best way to format your education section:

  • Display your highest degree first.
  • If you graduated over 5 years ago, put this section at the bottom of your resume. If you lack relevant work experience, the education section should go to the top.
  • If you have a bachelor's or master's degree, do not list your high school education.
  • If your graduation year is more than 15-20 years ago, it's better not to include dates in this section.

Here are some examples of good education entries for resumes:

Bachelor's Degree in journalism

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

2015 - 2018

Bachelor's Degree in communication

University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC

2008 - 2011

Highlight your staff reporter certifications on your resume

Certifications are a great way to showcase special expertise or niche skills. Some jobs even require certifications to be hired.

Start simple. Include the full name of the certification. It's also good to mention the organization that issued the certification. Next, specify when you obtained the certification.

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