Journalism is one of the most exciting careers around, but what can you expect to be paid once you’re qualified?
The median salary of those working in journalism six months after completing their NCTJ diploma is £22,500. This is slightly more than the salary of graduates in all subjects (£22,000).
This increases to £27,500 three years after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism.
Journalism salaries can also vary depending on which sector you go on to work in, and by location, with journalists working in London receiving the highest average salaries.
See the table below from our 2018 Journalists at Work research:
| Average salary (£) | |
| All | 27,500 |
| Job title | |
| Editorial management | 35,000 |
| Section heads | 27,500 |
| Writers/reporters (newspapers or magazines) | 22,500 |
| Digital journalists | 22,500 |
| Broadcast reporters | 35,000 |
| Production | 35,000 |
| Main sector | |
| Newspapers | 22,500 |
| Magazines | 27,500 |
| Radio | 35,000 |
| Television | 45,000 |
| Online | 27,500 |
| Other | 22,500 |
| Main platform | |
| Print-based | 22,500 |
| Broadcast-based | 45,000 |
| Online/digital | 27,500 |
| Platform neutral | 35,000 |
We are committed to an ongoing programme of research to provide the industry with up-to-date labour market information about journalism. Here are some reports you may be interested in.
We commissioned this research to provide new and consistent information across a range of industry sectors on the journalism professions. It is both an update of the organisation’s 2012 Journalists at Work publication, and an exploration of issues that have emerged since.
This independent research aims to assess the impact of investing in an NCTJ-accredited course and performing well in the diploma. It follows the first report, which was published in 2015.
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