How hard is it to become a news anchor?

It is somewhat hard to become a news anchor. At a minimum, you need to hold a degree in journalism or a related field. You typically also need to have relevant experience, such as an internship or experience working as a news anchor for a university's programming.

How To Become A News Anchor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a news anchor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

News Anchors are also called a newscaster or a news analyst. You will be working for television or radio stations. You will represent the network's image and perform some research and writing of news stories, check for grammatical errors and accuracy, ensure correctness and clarity, and many more.

Most News anchors took up journalism as their undergraduate course, and a bachelor's degree is the most common degree of News Anchors today. You can earn around $39,040 per year on average as a News Anchor. There are also chances for you to explore other careers and further your profession. You can be a Producer, a Project manager, a marketing director, and a Director of Marketing and Public relations after some years.

There are common and important skills News Anchor applicants today include in their resumes. Some of these things include Current Events, Twitter, On-Air, News Stories, and Facebook, so you might want to check your knowledge or skills on these aspects.

ScoreNews AnchorUS Average

Salary

3.4

Avg. Salary $43,198

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.9

Growth Rate -10%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.29%

Asian 9.66%

Black or African American 6.36%

Hispanic or Latino 12.58%

Unknown 4.38%

White 66.73%

Gender

female 51.26%

male 48.74%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress Level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.7

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

3.9

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a news anchor

Explore news anchor education requirements

Most common news anchor degrees

Bachelor's

82.0 %

Associate

7.5 %

Master's

6.0 %

Start to develop specific news anchor skills

Skills	Percentages
News Content	8.66%
Facebook	8.39%
Twitter	7.90%
Social Media Sites	6.36%
News Coverage	4.95%

Complete relevant news anchor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New news anchors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a news anchor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real news anchor resumes.

Research news anchor duties and responsibilities

Operate AP NEWSCENTER/ENPS and manage CNN feed services.
Produce Emmy award-winning features, web content, and weekly consumer blog.
Cover a variety of NFL, NCAA and high school events.
Co-Launch station Facebook brand, promote and aid expansion to 80K followers.

Prepare your news anchor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your news anchor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a news anchor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable News Anchor Resume templates

Build a professional News Anchor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your News Anchor resume.

Apply for news anchor jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a news anchor job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do news anchors rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

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1 Star

News Anchor reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Sep 2019

Cons

Physically demanding, low pay and part time positions available to those just starting out, no health insurance, competitive, pressure to be available on call despite terms of contract

Pros

Every day was different, you meet a lot of new people, the events covered could be very exciting