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Senior Reporter
CreativeYou've earned the beats nobody else can handle — the ones with sources who only talk to you and stories that take months, not hours. You're trusted to go deeper, dig harder, and break the stories that define your outlet's reputation.
Salary Range
Low
$50k
Median
$65k
High
$85k
10-Year Growth
-3%
US Workers
45K
Education
Bachelor's in Journalism + 3–7 yrs reporting experience
Environment
indoor
Tools & Technical Skills
- ▸Investigative reporting methods
- ▸Source development & protection
- ▸Long-form narrative writing
- ▸Public records & FOIA requests
- ▸Data analysis for journalism
- ▸Multimedia reporting (audio, video, text)
People & Mindset Skills
- ▸Persistence
- ▸Ethical judgment
- ▸Mentoring ability
- ▸Source relationship building
- ▸Deadline discipline
- ▸Storytelling instinct
- ▸Courage under institutional pressure
Learn the skills
Courses and certifications to get you job-ready
What you'll actually do
- 01Work long-form investigations that take weeks or months to develop
- 02Cultivate and protect confidential sources
- 03Mentor junior reporters on sourcing, structure, and ethical gray areas
- 04Write enterprise stories that go beyond the daily news cycle
- 05Appear on panels, podcasts, or TV as a subject-matter expert
- 06Fight with editors about story length (you always lose, but you always fight)
Career Path
Where this role sits in the bigger picture — and where it can take you.
Staff Reporter
Entry·0–3 yrs·AP style writing + beat reporting
$30k–$50k
Senior Reporter / Beat Writer
YOU ARE HEREMid-Career·3–7 yrs·Source networks + investigative methods
$50k–$70k
Editor / Bureau Chief
Senior·7–15 yrs·Editorial judgment + team management
$65k–$90k
Executive Editor / Editor-in-Chief
Leadership·15+ yrs·Newsroom strategy + business acumen + public representation
$100k–$150k+
Related Shifts
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