Journalist Salary
Official ONS earnings for the UK, covering 17,000 jobs.
Median salary
£42,169
gross, per year, all employees
▲ 32.5% change on the previous year
Full-time only
£44,534
Mean
£44,599
Jobs measured
17,000
What a typical journalist takes home
On the median of £42,169, 2026/27 tax year, England, Wales and Northern Ireland rates, no pension or student loan.
Take-home a month
£2,823
Take-home a year
£33,881
Income Tax
£5,920
National Insurance
£2,368
The full pay range
Each bar is the salary at that percentile — the 25th means a quarter of journalists earn less than this.
Journalist salary by region
4 of 11 GB regions have a published figure for this occupation.
| Region | Median | Mean |
|---|---|---|
| London | £51,548 | £52,655 |
| North West | £49,824 | £51,594 |
| South West | £29,922 | £31,413 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | £27,340 | £28,951 |
Where this figure comes from
- ONS occupation group
- Newspaper and periodical journalists and reporters
- SOC 2020 code
- 2492
- Measure
- Gross annual pay, all employees
- Edition
- ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional
ONS publishes a sampling error of 12.0% for this figure and asks that anything above 10% is treated as imprecise — too few people in this region answered the survey for this occupation. The figure is shown because it is the one ONS published, but it is not firm enough to rank this region against anywhere else, so this page doesn't.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are estimates from a survey of PAYE jobs and are not financial advice.
Journalist salary FAQs
What is the average Journalist salary in the UK?
The median is £42,169 a year and the mean is £44,599, according to the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Those cover all employees; full-time employees alone have a median of £44,534.
How much does a journalist earn per hour?
Across the UK the median hourly rate is £22.48 excluding overtime, or £22.54 for full-time employees. ASHE publishes hourly pay by occupation nationally only.
Has journalist pay gone up in the last year?
ASHE puts the year-on-year change in the median at +32.5% for this occupation in the UK. That compares the latest survey with the one before it and is not adjusted for inflation.
How many journalists are there in the UK?
ASHE counts around 17,000 employee jobs in “Newspaper and periodical journalists and reporters” (SOC 2492) in the UK. Self-employed work is not included.
Is this figure official?
Yes. It comes from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, an accredited official statistic based on employer PAYE records.
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