Creating the right journalist website isn’t as easy as nay-sayers will tell you it is. You don't just upload a few samples of your investigative report and be done with it. Employers in 2024 expect to see that you've put out high-quality work consistently. They also want to see that your journalism is relevant, adaptable, and capable of generating an interested audience.
You have to communicate all of this in your journalism portfolio. Not exactly a piece of cake.
Thankfully, I found a few great examples to help you with this, especially if you're somewhat new to the industry. If you're been around for a while, looking at these journalist website examples can also help with ideas for updating your portfolio. Either way, if you're. journalist, you'll get something worthwhile out of this article.
Let's dig in, yea?
• 10 excellent examples of what a great journalist website looks like
• How you can get a similarly excellent journalist website with Authory
What a great website looks like — Journalist website examples that stand out to potential clients
Simon Denyer
Simon Denyer is a wildlife conservation consultant, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and author. He was also a former bureau chief with The Washington Post and Reuters. Simon has written the book "Rogue Elephant: Harnessing the Power of India's Unruly Democracy."
Jonathan O'Callaghan
Jonathan O’Callaghan is a freelance space journalist in the UK who writes for The New York Times, The BBC, Scientific American, Quanta, New Scientist, WIRED, and multiple other publications. He covers diverse disciplines such as astronomy, astrophysics, commercial spaceflight, and space exploration.
Sheena Roetman
Sheena Roetman is a freelance journalist/writer, and the education director at the Native American Journalists Association. She has also worked as a membership director at the Atlanta Press Club and former news and investigations for Indian Country Today.
Tim Robson
Tim Robson has been an automotive journalist, photographer, and presenter since 1999. His work has appeared in publications like Wheels, MOTOR, Top Gear, GoAuto, CarsGuide, 4x4 Australia, and more.
His two-decade career has seen him test more than 1,200 vehicles in more than a dozen countries, and more than 10 million people have watched video content that he has scripted, produced, and hosted. You can catch all that and more on his portfolio page.
David Anderson
David Anderson is a journalist and communications specialist - predominately in the agricultural, rural, and agribusiness sectors in New Zealand. He has nearly 30 years of journalistic experience and is currently consulting editor of Rural News.
Andrew Feinberg
Andrew Feinberg is a Washington, DC-based journalist who currently serves as the White House correspondent for The Independent. His writing has also appeared in publications like The Hill, Newsweek, Politico Magazine, Communications Daily, and Washington Business Journal.
Robin van Gammeren
Robin van Gammeren is a freelance journalist/writer/videographer. After finishing her Journalism at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, she worked at a local broadcaster for a while, until she realized that she wanted more freedom in her career. To achieve the same, she switched to freelancing.
Her work samples span a wide range of topics, but she is especially interested in nature, sustainability, social issues, and travel.
Ali M Latifi
Kabul-based freelance journalist Ali M Latifi is a seasoned contributor to major journalistic names — Al Jazeera English, The LA Times, CNN, The New York Times, VICE, Deutsche Welle, Foreign Policy, and Business Insider. He has also appeared on TV and the radio for CNN, Deutsche Welle, PBS, Al Jazeera English, and NPR.
Pam Moore
Pam Moore is an award-winning freelance health and fitness journalist and content marketing writer with over ten years of healthcare experience. A regular contributor to The Washington Post's Wellness section, she has also written for Time. The Guardian, Runner's World, SELF, Outside, Forbes, and many others.
Erin Blakemore
Erin Blakemore is a journalist and author from Boulder, Colorado. She writes about history, science, culture, and the unexpected. Her reporting has appeared in outlets like The Washington Post, NPR, National Geographic, TIME, Smithsonian, and The Atlantic. Her debut book. The Heroine’s Bookshelf (Harper) has won a Colorado Book Award for nonfiction.
How to create incredible journalism portfolio websites to showcase your work in literal minutes — no website templates needed
Now that you know what great journalism portfolios look like, let's look at a tool that helps you create immaculate portfolio websites with minimal effort.
Enter Authory.
Authory doesn’t just give you the space to copy-paste links for writing portfolio sites. It literally does over half the work: finding all bylined content you’ve ever published, importing it automatically, saving it permanently (again, automatically), and enabling you to organize your pieces into different collections.
So, here's why you, dear journalist, should use Authory to showcase your writing abilities, writing style, and writing skills.
A self-updating portfolio (no need to keep adding new work manually)
Authory will AUTOMATICALLY import a copy of every bylined piece from every site into its own database.
These sites are called "sources." You add as many sources as you want, and every single bylined piece from every single source will be imported automatically.
You don't have to track down links to your published work (especially older pieces). As long as you remember the URL of the site where your work exists, Authory will collate all your content for you in one dashboard.
Authory can import content from behind most soft paywalls (as long as it is a bylined piece) and some hard paywalls. However, it cannot be used to import copies of articles, podcasts, and videos you haven’t created or featured in.
There isn’t any need to manually upload/copy-paste your content. That said, if you happen to have any non-bylined content, you can always do so manually in those cases.
Automated backups (never lose your content, ever)
All the content that Authory imports from different sources is saved permanently. You'll never have to worry about losing any of your published work. Even if the original website where it's published goes defunct for any reason, you'll always have a copy safely stored on Authory's server.
All backups are in the original format — text and/or media. No screenshots. This is super important because it lets you search through your content database, making it a valuable research tool.
Continued importing of past and future content (less effort for a 100% updated portfolio)
Once you enter a source, Authory won't just import your existing publications. Anything you publish on the same site (after you've fed its URL into Authory) in the future will also be imported automatically. In other words, Authory will import your past and future content.
Authory also sends email notifications for every new piece it imports, so you'll always know if something you submitted has been published.
Apart from these, you also get a slew of miscellaneous but necessary features:
- Ability to search through both your portfolio and your content database to find articles/audio/videos based on keywords. Prospective employers and hiring managers can use this to look for topics on your portfolio, and you can use it to find specific pieces within your Authory content bank.
- Ability to create a custom domain with a click.
- All imported content can be downloaded as high-res PDFs or exportable as HTML files — no lock-in period.
- Get a custom domain and personalize your online writing portfolio even further.
- Multiple, low-effort options for customization to make your portfolio visually appealing and easy to navigate.
- In-built analytics that provide real numbers on content performance (engagement, readership) across the web and popular social media sites every 30 days. You get to see how your readers/viewers are responding to your work.
- Allows creation of newsletters with a couple of clicks. After setup, Authory will automatically send your newly published content to subscribers.
- Widgets to display your personal portfolio on other sites, such as your personal website (if you have one).
As a freelance writer myself, I can vouch for the fact that Authory doesn't just give you an online portfolio. It actively makes your professional life easier for you. It's much easier to get freelance writing jobs
Of course, you should NOT take my word for it. The only opinions you can truly count on are your own.
Get started with Authory for free and see for yourself what works for you!
