Journalist salary
What a journalist actually earns, from 192 live job postings blended with the official US OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) wage anchor. Pick a market for its median and range, then read the seniority split, the trend, and the country comparison below. Updated 2026-09-06.
Switch the market above to see journalist pay in the 2 countries our sources cover, each with its own cost of living. The trend, seniority, and state detail below are United States data, where the official record runs deepest.
What the number means
A journalist earns a blended US median near 66,048 dollars, with the typical middle running from 48,768 dollars to 93,012 dollars. The official OEWS median is 60,280 dollars, under the posted figure, because the advertised roles skew senior or well-funded. The official trend has moved up about 30 percent since 2019.
Open journalist roles
Live openings tagged to this occupation, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.
Senior News Editor - German Speaker at AtollsBerlin, Germany5d agoApply
EDITOR at U.S. Marine CorpsQuantico, Virginia$71k–$111k6d agoApply
Reporter/Journalist at BNamericasRemote$30k–$36k1w agoApply
Editor (Secret LA) at FeverupLos Angeles$88k–$94k1w agoApply
PLOS One Associate Editor- 12 Month FTC at Public Library of ScienceUnited Kingdom · Remote$48k–$53k1w agoApply
Food & Drink Journalist Intern at A.N. PublishingUnited States · Remote2w agoApply
By country
- United States$48,768$66,048$93,012
- United Kingdom$42,131$51,052$57,787
Switzerland · official wage bands
median CHF 9'122/month
Swiss postings do not state pay, so these are not posted salaries: they are the federal wage survey (Lohnstrukturerhebung 2024) for the ISCO group 26 Juristen, Sozialwissenschaftler und Kulturberufe: standardized gross monthly, full-time, 13th salary included pro rata. The band covers the whole occupation group, which is coarser than this occupation alone.
Annual ≈ CHF 109'464 at the median. Source: Bundesamt für Statistik, LSE 2024.
Top-paying US states
OEWS median by state, highest first.
- New York$103,810
- Virginia$63,360
- Florida$57,720
- Washington$57,040
- South Carolina$44,690
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Quick answers
How much does a journalist make?
The blended US median is about 66,048 dollars, with a typical range from 48,768 dollars to 93,012 dollars, against an official OEWS median of 60,280 dollars.
Method: bands are the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of live US postings with stated pay, shrunk toward the official OEWS anchor by sample size (the “blended” figure). Trend is the OEWS annual median for SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code 27-3023. Live corpus 192 observations, 2026-09-06. Definitions in the glossary.