Career Trends: Reporters, Correspondents, and Broadcast News Analysts

Reporters, correspondents, and broadcast news analysts inform the public about news and events happening internationally, nationally, and locally. They report the news for newspapers, magazines, websites, television, and radio.

Reporters, correspondents, and broadcast news analysts spend a lot of time in the field, conducting interviews and investigating stories. The work is often fast paced, with constant demands to meet deadlines and to be the first reporter to publish a news story on a subject.

Employers generally prefer workers who have a bachelor’s degree in journalism or communications along with an internship or work experience from a college radio or television station or a newspaper.

Employment of reporters, correspondents, and broadcast news analysts is projected to decline 9 percent from 2014 to 2024. Declining advertising revenue in radio, newspapers, and television will negatively impact the employment growth for these occupations.

This occupation supported 57,600 jobs in 2012 and 54,400 jobs in 2014, reflecting a decline of 5.6%. In 2012, this occupation was projected to decrease by 12.5% in 2022 to 50,400 jobs. As of 2014, to keep pace with prediction, the expected number of jobs was 56,100, compared with an observed value of 54,400, 3.0% lower than expected. This indicates current employment trends are worse than the 2012 trend within this occupation. In 2014, this occupation was projected to decrease by 8.3% in 2024 to 49,600 jobs. Linear extrapolation of the 2012 projection for 2022 results in an expected number of 48,900 jobs for 2024, 1.4% lower than the 2014 projection for 2024. This indicates expectations for future employment trends are about on track with the 2012 trend within this occupation.