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Frequently asked questions
How many journalists does JournalistLabs count?
The September 2026 count holds 127,602 journalist rows at 8,800 outlets. Every page states the month of the count it shows. Journalist counts.
What counts as a journalist?
A job title that matches a newsroom title such as reporter, editor, correspondent, columnist, anchor, presenter, critic, news producer, staff writer or feature writer, and matches nothing on the stoplist. Marketing, product, content marketing, PR and sales titles are out even when they contain editor or writer. A bare producer or bare writer title does not count. Method.
Which beats are covered?
26 beats, matched from the job title and the profile headline together. A journalist can carry several beats and is counted under each. About a quarter of rows carry any beat, so every beat figure is a count of journalists whose title or headline names the beat. Beat lists.
Which countries have a page?
43 countries, each with at least 200 journalist rows. The country on a row is the one on the person's own profile, which can differ from the outlet's country.
Where do the rows come from?
Outlets come from a vendor company dataset cut to media industries, 125 hand-listed outlets and Wikidata's news-media organisations and journalist employers. People come from a vendor people dataset joined to those outlets on the company domain. No outlet website was crawled. Method.
How are outlets grouped by type?
Into newspapers, broadcasters, online outlets, wire agencies and magazines, from each outlet's Wikidata labels. An outlet with no Wikidata entry falls back to its industry label. Outlets.
Does JournalistLabs publish contact details?
No. A listed row carries name, job title, outlet, country, role, seniority and beat. There is no email, phone number, profile URL, page per person or person-level download.
Why is a journalist I know missing from a beat list?
A person appears on a beat list only when their job title or profile headline names the beat and their outlet is in the outlet universe. A row with a blank name, title, outlet or country is dropped from every list.
Can I cite the counts?
Yes. Every count and list is free to read and to cite. Link the page the number came from and give its count month.
Can I download the data?
Each research post links a CSV of the rows behind it. The research datasets are also published on GitHub. journalistlabs-data.
How do I report an error?
Email hello@journalistlabs.com with the page URL and what is wrong.