Arts route
Journalist / Mass Communication Professional (IIMC / Jamia AJK MCRC / DU)
Report, write, shoot and edit the news — one of the widest gaps in this whole map between what people assume it pays and what it actually pays.
First question
What does this person do?
A reporter chases a story, calls sources, checks facts and writes it up against a deadline that does not move for you. A sub-editor sits at a desk turning other people's copy into something publishable, fast, every day. A television journalist works with a camera crew, does pieces to camera, and increasingly cuts and posts their own footage rather than handing it to a separate editing desk. A growing share of graduates from these programmes never work in a newsroom at all — they go into public relations, corporate communications, or content and social media roles at companies, which is not really journalism but pays noticeably better and is where a large share of the class ends up. Journalism itself splits sharply by language and medium: English-language digital and print roles at national outlets pay more than Hindi and regional-language roles, and mainstream news organisations are hiring less for reporting and anchoring, more for content writing, PR-adjacent communications and social media management. Reported pay needs context: a headline about one offer can misrepresent the earnings of a whole graduating class.
In 2019 the magazine India Today published a claim that graduates of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), the country's best-known government journalism institute, were getting an average starting salary of Rs 13 lakh a year. The outlet Newslaundry investigated and found no student from that batch who had been hired anywhere near that figure through campus placements — most of the batch had been hired at Rs 18,000-35,000 a month, and IIMC's own Additional Director General admitted the Rs 13 lakh figure was the single highest individual offer, not the average, and 'must have been printed by mistake'. This is not an isolated slip: reported coverage of IIMC's own placement cycles in the years since shows Hindi-medium freshers averaging around Rs 3. 5 lakh a year and English-medium freshers around Rs 4. 8-5 lakh, with placement rates themselves falling as mainstream newsrooms hire less. If you go into this route expecting the number quoted in a college prospectus or a magazine ranking, expect to be disappointed; if you go in expecting an ordinary graduate salary with the possibility of it rising well if you move into TV anchoring, senior editorial roles or corporate communications, you are calibrated correctly.
Next question
What are they paid?
LPA = lakhs per annum; ₹1 lakh = ₹100,000. These are broad India market estimates across common employers and work settings—not guaranteed offers, audited statistics or the ceiling. References give context, not proof of each exact band. Historical anchors and evidence gaps remain in Sources.
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Entry first role
Estimated range₹3.0–7.0LPA
Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Newsrooms, digital media, production, communications and freelance work are combined here.
Arts estimated midpoint at this rung: ₹5.6 LPA · midpoint median across 8 editorial Arts routes · compare all routes
Market reference: AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com Estimate dated
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Mid about 5 years in
Estimated range₹6.0–15LPA
Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Newsrooms, digital media, production, communications and freelance work are combined here.
Arts estimated midpoint at this rung: ₹12 LPA · midpoint median across 8 editorial Arts routes · compare all routes
Market reference: AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com Estimate dated
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Senior about 10 years in
Estimated range₹10–25LPA
Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Newsrooms, digital media, production, communications and freelance work are combined here.
Arts estimated midpoint at this rung: ₹22 LPA · midpoint median across 8 editorial Arts routes · compare all routes
Market reference: AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com Estimate dated
The vertical line marks the midpoint median of the editorial estimates for this stream. Published examples are excluded. Scale: ₹ lakhs per annum.
Hiring landscape
Who hires for this work?
Examples of large employers and institutions associated with this route in India:
- The Times of India
- Hindustan Times
- The Indian Express
- NDTV
Examples, not a ranking or a promise of a current vacancy. Hiring changes; check the employer’s own careers page.
What it takes to get in
- Entrance exam
- CUET-PG for IIMC's postgraduate diploma programmes in journalism (Hindi, English, Radio & TV, plus Urdu, Marathi, Odia and Malayalam) since IIMC's move to CUET-PG; Jamia Millia Islamia's own entrance test for the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre's postgraduate diploma and MA programmes; CUET-UG for Delhi University's undergraduate BA (Journalism and Mass Communication) programmes. Open to any stream, including arts.
- Realistic cut-off
- All three routes are genuinely open to graduates of any background, and none publish a numeric cutoff score in the way an engineering or medical exam does — selection generally combines a written test with an interview. The bottleneck is less the exam and more what happens after: mainstream newsroom hiring has been shrinking relative to the number of graduates these programmes produce each year, and a meaningful share of any graduating class does not end up working in a newsroom at all.
- How long
- 4 years
- Roughly what it costs
₹60,000–2 lakh
IIMC's postgraduate diploma programmes cost roughly Rs 60,000-2 lakh depending on the specific course and campus. AJK MCRC's postgraduate diploma and MA programmes cost roughly Rs 60,000-1.7 lakh. Delhi University's undergraduate BJMC is priced like any other DU college course, typically a few thousand rupees a year at a government college. Private mass communication colleges and universities charge considerably more for a broadly similar qualification, without a correspondingly better placement outcome.
Approximate, tuition only, excluding coaching and living costs unless the source text says otherwise.
- Can you switch out later?
- Good. Journalism and mass communication training transfers readily into public relations, corporate communications, content writing, social media and marketing roles, and a large share of every graduating class uses it this way rather than working in a newsroom. Moving in the other direction — from a corporate communications job back into hard news reporting — is less common, partly because the pay cut involved is real and partly because newsroom hiring itself has been shrinking.
Delhi entry paths
These are the routes people in Delhi commonly take into this career. This is not a ranking of institutions and does not list cut-offs for any particular college.
- Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi — the country's best-known government mass communication institute, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, entered through CUET-PG
- A.J.K. Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia — a well-regarded mass communication centre entered through Jamia's own entrance test
- Delhi University colleges offering BA (Journalism and Mass Communication) at undergraduate level, entered through CUET-UG
- Indraprastha University-affiliated mass communication colleges across Delhi NCR, entered through their own or IPU's admission process
- Delhi is the headquarters city for most major English and Hindi national news organisations, which is where the internships that lead to campus placements and off-campus hiring are concentrated
How this compares
| Route | Entry | Mid | Senior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel Management Professional (B.Sc HHA via NCHMCT JEE) | ₹2.5–6.0 LPA | ₹5.0–12 LPA | ₹10–25 LPA |
| Social Worker / Development Sector Professional | ₹3.0–7.0 LPA | ₹6.0–14 LPA | ₹10–24 LPA |
| Journalist / Mass Communication Professional (IIMC / Jamia AJK MCRC / DU) (this route) | ₹3.0–7.0 LPA | ₹6.0–15 LPA | ₹10–25 LPA |
| Psychologist (BA/BSc Psychology via DU and CUET-UG) | ₹3.0–7.0 LPA | ₹6.0–15 LPA | ₹10–30 LPA |
| Designer (B.Des via NID / NIFT / UCEED) | ₹3.5–9.0 LPA | ₹7.0–18 LPA | ₹14–35 LPA |
| Civil Services Officer (UPSC — IAS, IPS, IFS and others) | ₹10–14 LPA | ₹14–20 LPA | ₹18–28 LPA |
Sources
- Newslaundry www.newslaundry.com · may be dated
2019-05-22: Newslaundry investigative report: India Today's May 2019 claim that IIMC graduates received an average annual salary of Rs 13 lakh was found false on cross-checking with the 2018 graduating batch, most of whom were hired at Rs 18,000-35,000 a month; IIMC's own Additional Director General confirmed the Rs 13 lakh figure was a single highest offer, not an average, and that only 69 percent (not the reported 85 percent) of that batch had been placed. 2019-05-22: Historical evidence gap for the mid rung; not validation of the displayed estimate: No acceptable published source tracks journalist pay at five years. The Majithia Wage Board, a statutory board constituted under the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees Act 1955, set minimum wage scales for journalists by newspaper category and the Supreme Court upheld it in 2014 — but its figures are now over a decade old, are frequently reported as unevenly enforced, and could not be verified against a current, reachable official schedule for this project. What is well documented qualitatively is the split: journalists who stay in reporting and editing see slow pay growth, while those who move into PR, corporate communications or television anchoring can see pay rise well above the entry band — but neither path has a published number this project is willing to cite. 2019-05-22: Historical evidence gap for the senior rung; not validation of the displayed estimate: No acceptable published source. At ten years, senior reporters and editors at struggling print and digital newsrooms, well-known television anchors, and communications heads who left journalism for the corporate side are all notionally on this route and are paid entirely differently, none of it published in a form this project will cite.
- Storyboard18 www.storyboard18.com · may be dated
2024-07-17: Storyboard18 report on the 2023-24 placement cycle: IIMC Hindi-medium freshers averaging around Rs 3.5 lakh a year, English-medium freshers Rs 4.8-5 lakh; industry-wide media and entertainment fresher packages (per talent platform foundit) averaging Rs 4.08 lakh (low) to Rs 6.79 lakh (high) in 2024, down from Rs 4.6 lakh and Rs 7.47 lakh respectively in 2021; roughly 160 of around 500 IIMC students placed during the 2024 campus cycle. 2024-07-17: Historical published anchor for the entry rung; not validation of the displayed estimate: Reported figures, not an institute's own audited disclosure. Storyboard18 (an established trade-media outlet) reported in 2024 that IIMC's Hindi-medium journalism freshers were being offered around Rs 3.5 lakh a year on average and English-medium freshers between Rs 4.8 and 5 lakh, while industry-wide fresher packages in media and entertainment (data from talent platform foundit) averaged Rs 4.08 lakh at the low end and Rs 6.79 lakh at the high end in 2024, both down from 2021. This sits far below the Rs 13 lakh figure that India Today published in 2019 and that Newslaundry's investigation found to be false — see the note in what_you_actually_do. The reported Hindi-medium fresher figure is toward the low end of this historical range; it does not establish how common each outcome is across all graduates; PR, corporate communications and content roles taken by the same graduating cohorts often pay above this band but are a different job, not journalism.
- AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com
2026-08-21: Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Newsrooms, digital media, production, communications and freelance work are combined here.