Examples & writing guide
Journalism CV example and writing guide
Updated 7 August 2026
A strong journalism CV reads like well-edited copy: the best evidence appears early, every detail earns its place and factual claims stand up to scrutiny. This guide explains how to present reporting experience, published work, digital production skills and measurable results without making the page feel crowded.
Examples by experience level
Junior Journalist
TemplateGrey Frame5 / 5
Why this works
This journalism CV sample combines newsroom placements, student reporting and measurable digital results without overstating an early-career candidate's experience.
Continue writing your CVSenior Multimedia Journalist
TemplateBlue Horizon3 / 5
Why this works
This journalism CV sample shows editorial leadership, careful verification, multimedia reporting and measurable audience results without losing sight of day-to-day reporting craft.
Continue writing your CVJunior vs senior: what changes
| Aspect | Junior | Senior |
|---|---|---|
| Personal statement | Lead with reporting interests, transferable evidence, published student or community work and the formats you can handle. | Lead with editorial scope, leadership, specialist coverage and measurable publication or audience outcomes. |
| Reporting evidence | Show small but complete assignments: finding sources, checking facts, interviewing and filing clean copy to deadline. | Show complex investigations, breaking-news decisions, source strategy and responsibility for accuracy across several contributors. |
| Digital and multimedia work | Name the online, social, audio or video pieces you personally produced and explain your contribution. | Show how you selected platforms, directed multimedia coverage and used audience evidence to improve later commissioning. |
| Metrics | Use modest, traceable figures such as article volume, turnaround time, source count or engagement on owned work. | Use defensible measures of portfolio scale, publishing cadence, audience response, team output or correction reduction. |
| Leadership | Evidence reliability, teamwork, initiative and constructive response to edits. | Evidence commissioning, coaching, sub-editing, risk escalation and coordination with editors, reporters and photographers. |
| Portfolio positioning | Select a few strong clips that prove range and sound reporting habits. | Curate clips by specialism, editorial influence and outcome, making personal authorship and team contributions clear. |
How to write a journalism CV
Use a clean, reverse-chronological format that lets an editor find your strongest reporting evidence quickly. Two pages is a sensible ceiling for most applicants, while an early-career journalist with limited experience may fit everything onto one. Put your name and contact details first, then your personal statement, selected skills, experience, education and relevant extras. Add a clearly labelled portfolio link near the top rather than scattering links through every section.
| Section | Include | Cut |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Name, UK location, mobile, email, portfolio and professional profile | Photo, date of birth, full street address and decorative graphics |
| Personal statement | Reporting focus, strongest evidence and the role you want | Claims such as "passionate journalist" without proof |
| Experience | Assignments, reporting methods, publication context and results | Routine duties copied from a job description |
| Skills | Abilities you have used and can discuss confidently | Every platform or technique you have encountered once |
| Education | Exact award, institution, dates and a relevant project if useful | A long list of modules |
| Extras | Selected publications, languages, volunteering or subject knowledge | Unrelated details added to fill space |
Personal statement
Write two or three compact sentences. Say what kind of journalist you are, which subjects or formats you know and what proves your ability. A journalism personal statement should be specific enough that another applicant could not use it unchanged. An early-career candidate might lead with student reporting, a placement or an independent portfolio. An established journalist should foreground editorial range, audience, output or leadership at an appropriate scale.
Experience and portfolio
List positions and substantial projects from newest to oldest. Journalism entrants can build relevant experience while studying, and a relevant qualification is not the only route into the profession. Freelance commissions, student media, placements, community reporting and independent work can all count when they are labelled honestly. Show researching, investigating, interviewing, reporting and writing through completed assignments rather than adjectives.
Use three to five concise bullets beneath each relevant position. Start with a strong verb, explain the assignment or problem and finish with a defensible result. Give enough context to distinguish a quick rewrite from original reporting. When work was collaborative, state your contribution plainly. A small portfolio of carefully chosen pieces is more useful than a long, unfiltered archive; make sure each link works and that any paywall or access restriction is clear.
Skills, education and extras
Order skills to match the vacancy. Where you have used them, relevant technical abilities may include video, audio, editing, shorthand, social media content creation, search engine optimisation and web design. Multimedia evidence matters more when it names the output and your contribution. "Produced and edited a two-minute interview package" is stronger than "video skills".
Present qualifications briefly, saving space for reporting evidence. Useful extras can include a language used for interviews, specialist knowledge that supports a beat, or sustained volunteering that led to published work. Review your public profiles as carefully as the CV because journalists are advised to consider how their online presence presents them.
Personal statement examples
Early-career multimedia journalist with experience researching local affairs, interviewing community sources and producing accurate copy for student and independent publications. My portfolio includes web articles, short video and social content, with 28 published pieces completed across two academic terms and every commissioned item filed by deadline.
I am a passionate and hard-working person who has always wanted to work in journalism. I have excellent communication skills, enjoy current affairs and can work alone or in a team. I am looking for an exciting role where I can grow and use my skills.
Writing your experience
Treat each experience bullet as a compact piece of reporting. Lead with the action, add enough context to show the scope or difficulty, then finish with a result. Useful measures include published output, turnaround time, interviews secured, corrections, completion rates and changes in an audience measure. Numbers make evidence easier to assess, but only use figures that come from records you can defend.
A practical structure is: action verb + reporting or production task + scope + verified outcome. "Reported weekly community news" leaves too much unanswered. "Researched and wrote 18 community news articles in one term, interviewing 35 sources and filing every piece by deadline" shows output, method and reliability.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Wrote stories for the website. | Researched and filed 24 local-news articles in six months; 20 were published without a factual correction. |
| Helped with interviews. | Prepared and conducted 12 recorded interviews, using follow-up questions to develop six standalone features. |
| Managed social media content. | Recut eight reported stories into 26 platform-specific posts, raising average completion from 31% to 39%. |
Choose verbs that describe what you did: investigated, verified, corroborated, interviewed, reported, filed, edited, sub-edited, pitched, commissioned, produced, recorded, presented and analysed. Reserve "investigated" for work that went beyond a quick search. Use "verified" when you genuinely checked a source or claim.
Journalists identify and verify information from people, reports, data and social media, cross-checking sources where necessary. An interview bullet can name the format, preparation and how answers shaped follow-up questions. For print and associated digital work, relevant evidence can cover copy editing, headlines and publication photography. Broadcast applicants can describe story research, live or recorded interviews, presenting and voiceover assignments where these reflect their work.
Do not turn every bullet into a traffic claim. Accuracy, speed and editorial judgement also count. Quantify the sources corroborated, turnaround achieved or proportion of copy accepted without substantial revision. If audience analytics changed a coverage decision, state both the result and the action: "Reviewed four weeks of completion data and moved the explainer opening earlier, lifting average completion from 42% to 49%."
Senior applicants should show greater scale. Useful evidence includes commissioning volume, editorial oversight, team responsibility and decisions made from performance data. A senior bullet might read: "Commissioned and edited 160 digital stories across six months, reducing average edit turnaround from 95 to 68 minutes while maintaining the desk's corrections log below three items per month."
Freelancers should identify the type of outlet, commissioning pattern and finished portfolio without implying permanent employment. A portfolio can include work produced for several outlets and pieces published through the journalist's own blog or podcast. Keep confidential sources anonymous and leave restricted newsroom information out of the CV. A convincing bullet never needs to compromise a source or reveal private commercial data.
Key skills & ATS keywords
Hard skills
Soft skills
ATS keywords
Education & certifications
Place education above experience when a course, student newsroom or final project contains your strongest evidence. Established journalists will usually place it below their employment history. Give the formal award title, institution and completion date. Add one or two lines for a substantial reporting project, placement or publication when it supports the application; a full module list rarely earns its space.
A relevant degree is one possible route, not a universal entry condition. The University of Essex Journalism course awards a (BA) Bachelor of Arts at Honours Degree level. That specific Journalism course is accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), and students on it can study for an industry-recognised qualification alongside their degree. These points describe one course. They do not establish a qualification that every journalist needs, so list only awards you have actually received.
The Certificate of Higher Education in Journalism offered by Birkbeck is approved by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). Taking that course makes a student eligible to apply for NUJ student membership. Eligibility, an application and confirmed membership are different things: do not list NUJ student membership unless it has been granted.
Entry criteria for a prospective course belong in the course application, not on a professional journalism CV. Check the provider's complete admissions information directly rather than treating one accepted qualification route as the only route. If a language test formed part of your own admission history, include it only when it remains relevant to the vacancy or application.
For every qualification, copy the exact title from the certificate and name the awarding institution and date. Mark unfinished study clearly as ongoing. Never upgrade attendance into an award or present an application as an achieved credential. Once reporting experience is stronger than school-level results, shorten the education section and give the saved space to work samples, placements and outcomes.
Common mistakes to avoid
AvoidListing articles written without explaining the reporting work or result.
InsteadAdd the subject, reporting method and a defensible outcome, such as verified sources used, publication turnaround, readership or engagement.
AvoidDescribing research vaguely, with phrases such as "researched stories" and no indication of source quality.
InsteadShow how you identified, checked and corroborated people, reports, data or social media material before publication.
AvoidTreating interviewing as a basic duty rather than an editorial skill.
InsteadGive an example of adapting your questioning to the interviewee and using answers to shape probing follow-up questions.
AvoidPresenting only print writing when the vacancy covers digital channels.
InsteadInclude relevant online, social, audio, video or multimedia work that you have actually produced, and name the platform or format.
AvoidClaiming strong news judgement without evidence of accuracy, balance or compliance.
InsteadUse a concise example showing fact-checking, editorial review, correction avoidance or escalation of a legal, regulatory or ethical concern.
AvoidAdding impressive-looking figures that cannot be checked or explained.
InsteadUse only figures you can defend, and retain supporting analytics, publication records or editor feedback where possible.
Frequently asked questions
Aim for one or two pages, depending on experience. Keep the strongest reporting evidence near the top and use a separate, clearly labelled portfolio link for clips rather than crowding the CV with full article details.
Use reporting completed through study, student media, community publications, volunteering, blogs or podcasts. Describe the same evidence an editor can assess: research, source checking, interviews, deadlines, published formats and results.
No. A British CV normally does not include a photograph or date of birth; use the space for a sharp journalism personal statement, reporting achievements and selected portfolio evidence.
A relevant qualification is not the only route into journalism. Strong evidence built while studying or through independent, community and freelance work can support an application, provided the CV makes your reporting process and published output clear.
Group substantial freelance work under one reverse-chronological entry, then name representative outlets, beats, formats and outcomes. Link to a curated portfolio containing work from multiple outlets or your own channels, such as a blog or podcast.
Translate previous work into editorial evidence rather than listing unrelated duties. Research, interviewing, critical analysis, clear writing, deadline control, subject expertise and public-facing communication are useful when backed by specific examples and relevant clips.
From example to application
Turn this journalism example into a CV that sounds like you.
Keep the structure that works. Tailor the details around your experience, strengths, and the role you want.