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The shape of the Aberdeen market
Aberdeen is close to a single-publisher market. DC Thomson, through Aberdeen Journals Ltd, publishes the Press and Journal and the Evening Express, owns the commercial station Original 106, and runs the specialist energy brands Energy Voice and E-FWD. Its own brand page describes the Press and Journal as published six days a week across a circulation area reaching Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, Moray, Inverness and the Highlands and Islands, and records the title as having been established in 1748, with Aberdeen Journals bought by DC Thomson in 2006.
The independent counterweight is smaller but genuine. Northsound 1, owned by Bauer Media, is confirmed on air serving Aberdeen and the north-east. shmu, a charity established in 2003, runs shmuFM on 99.8FM plus seven neighbourhood community newspapers — Cumming North, Mastrick Matters, Middlefield Mirror, Seaton Scene, Tilly Tattle, Torry's Vision and Woodside Free Press — supporting residents in seven regeneration areas of the city.
One structural detail is worth flagging early, because it shapes how much genuinely independent local reporting the city sustains: DC Thomson states that Original 106 keeps listeners up to date with local news from the Press and Journal and Courier newsrooms. In other words, the dominant newspaper group also supplies the news heard on one of the city's commercial radio stations.
How this page describes the titles
The Press and Journal's website sits behind a bot-management challenge, and energyvoice.com refuses direct automated requests. Those controls were respected, so the recent output of the DC Thomson titles was not inspected directly for this guide.
Where those titles are described below, the description is what DC Thomson states about its own brands. That is publisher-stated rather than independently verified, and it is not evidence either way about current output. Radio stations marked as confirmed on air were checked directly. Read the titles themselves before an application or interview.
The specialist route: Energy Voice and E-FWD
The most distinctive feature of this market is that the energy beat is a commercial product, not merely a topic. DC Thomson launched Energy Voice in 2013 and describes it as providing frontline energy news and views to industry professionals; it also appears as a monthly supplement inside the Press and Journal, covering oil, gas and renewables, which DC Thomson calls the major employer in the north-east. In 2023 the same publisher launched E-FWD, a membership and B2B brand pitched at the UK energy community.
For a reporter, that structure creates a career path other regional markets do not offer. Elsewhere, moving from local news into specialist trade journalism usually means changing employer and often city. In Aberdeen, both sit inside the same group, on the same patch, drawing on the same contacts. If you want to build a B2B or trade specialism, understanding how a general-news title and a sector vertical differ in audience, sourcing, and standard of technical accuracy is worth doing before you apply, not after.
Titles and organisations in the market
The Press and Journal (DC Thomson)
The region's daily. DC Thomson's brand page describes it as published six days a week across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, Moray, Inverness and the Highlands and Islands, and records the title as established in 1748.
Evening Express (DC Thomson)
An Aberdeen daily title with no separate website — DC Thomson records the site merging with the P&J in 2021. The publisher asserts six-day print publication and 9,400-plus average circulation per issue (ABC 2024).
Energy Voice (DC Thomson)
A standalone energy news brand launched in 2013, aimed at industry professionals, and also carried as a monthly supplement inside the Press and Journal. The clearest specialist-journalism route in the city.
E-FWD (DC Thomson)
Launched in 2023 as a membership and B2B sister brand to Energy Voice, pitched at access and influence within the UK energy community. A second specialist entry point rather than a general-news one.
Original 106 (DC Thomson)
Confirmed on air, serving Aberdeen, Tayside and Fife. Its publisher states that its local news comes from the Press and Journal and Courier newsrooms — a structural point about how concentrated news supply is here.
Northsound 1 (Bauer Media)
Confirmed on air, serving Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland, and the main commercial broadcast presence outside the DC Thomson stable.
shmu (Station House Media Unit)
A charity established in 2003 running shmuFM on 99.8FM plus seven neighbourhood community newspapers across the city's regeneration areas. A practical route to published and broadcast work, though the papers' cadence was not confirmed.
The energy sector itself
Operators, supply-chain firms, the Energy Transition Zone and government energy programmes generate the documentary trail that underpins the beat — and, for some journalists, an alternative communications career track.
The transition story, in figures
Aberdeen has been known as the offshore oil capital of Europe since North Sea oil was discovered in 1969, and the region has anchored UK domestic oil and gas for around fifty years. As reserves decline there is a concerted effort to rebrand the city as the energy capital of Europe rather than the oil capital. The public money attached to that shift is the spine of the beat.
Energy Transition Zone
£54m secured from the UK and Scottish Governments, targeting 2,500 direct jobs and 10,000 wider jobs.
Aberdeen City Region Deal
Up to £250m committed by the UK and Scottish Governments, plus up to £44m from local partners.
North Sea Transition Deal
Made the UK the first G7 country to agree such a deal, covering 40,000 jobs.
Oil and Gas Transition Training Fund
Announced by the Scottish Government in July 2025 to help workers move into offshore wind, onshore wind, hydrogen and carbon capture.
Announcing the training fund in July 2025, the Scottish Government said Aberdeen had been the energy capital of Britain for decades, while noting that oil and gas would be present for decades to come. Job targets of this kind are commitments rather than outcomes, and the distance between the two is where much of the accountability reporting in this city sits.
There is no accredited journalism course in Aberdeen
This is a confirmed absence, not a gap in our research. The NCTJ's Scotland filter returns Glasgow Caledonian University, running BA and MA Multimedia Journalism, and Glasgow Clyde College, running a fast-track diploma. The BJTC's Scotland heading lists Glasgow Caledonian University alone. Robert Gordon University and the University of Aberdeen appear on neither list, and RGU should not be described as accredited.
In practice that means the standard accredited route is a Glasgow route, a distance-learning route, or an employer and apprenticeship route. It also raises the value of the alternatives available locally: shmu's community radio and neighbourhood papers are a real way to accumulate published work, and the specialist energy titles reward demonstrable technical understanding at least as much as a course badge. Check both bodies' own course finders before committing, as accredited provision changes year to year.
What the pay evidence actually shows
There is no published salary series for journalists in Aberdeen. No official statistics body and no industry body publishes a role-by-region breakdown for UK journalism, so any city-specific band quoted elsewhere is an estimate rather than a measurement. The figures below are the NCTJ's national research, reproduced as the NCTJ reports it. They are UK-wide averages, not Aberdeen figures, and the NCTJ gives no regional breakdown below London.
Source: NCTJ, Journalists at Work salary research. National figures only; the London figure is a contrast, not a regional series. Specialist energy and B2B roles are not separately broken out, so no premium for the specialist route can be evidenced from published data.
How to read these figures
These are indicative bands compiled from advertised roles and from union and industry pay reporting (NUJ, Press Gazette). They are a guide to what you are likely to see, not an official statistical dataset, and individual offers vary widely by employer, experience, and negotiation. Treat them as a starting point and always check live listings for current figures.
For the official national picture, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Table 14 publishes median and percentile gross pay for the journalist occupation (SOC 2492); for negotiated minimums see the NUJ rate guidance.
Local democracy reporting: the outlier
The Local Democracy Reporting Service is a BBC-funded scheme paying for reporters employed by local news outlets to cover local democracy. In the original 2017/18 allocation, the contract covering Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City and Moray went to Aberdeen Journals, part of DC Thomson, with three reporters attached.
The current position could not be confirmed, and Aberdeen is a genuine outlier. DC Thomson holds several contracts in the current round, but the council-level split is unpublished, and the one readable DC Thomson local democracy reporter advertisement covers Highland Council, based in Inverness rather than Aberdeen. Separately, Press Gazette has reported that the Press and Journal still regularly covers court and small-tier council meetings without relying on BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporters. That would make Aberdeen a market where the incumbent funds much of its own civic coverage — a meaningful difference in how a newsroom is staffed, and a fair question to put to an employer at interview.
Where to find Aberdeen journalism jobs
DC Thomson advertises through its own careers pages and the national trade boards, and because the group runs both general-news and specialist energy titles, it is worth watching for vacancies across the whole portfolio rather than only on the Press and Journal. With no accredited course in the city, the NCTJ's own listings are also useful for distance-learning and employer routes.
Common mistakes when applying to Aberdeen newsrooms
- Describing Robert Gordon University or the University of Aberdeen as NCTJ- or BJTC-accredited. Neither appears on either body's list; the accredited Scottish provision is in Glasgow.
- Treating the Evening Express as having its own website. Its site merged with the Press and Journal in 2021 and the old domain redirects.
- Pitching the Aberdeen Citizen. Its print edition ceased on 23 May 2018 and its online presence was merged into the Press and Journal; it is not a current title.
- Referring to North East Community Radio FM as an option. It closed in 2018.
- Approaching the energy titles with general-news habits. Energy Voice and E-FWD serve industry readers, and technical imprecision is more exposed there than in a city daily.
- Assuming an Aberdeen salary figure exists, or that the specialist route carries a documented premium. Neither is published.
- Assuming the 2017/18 local democracy reporting arrangement still holds. The current allocation is not published, and the P&J has been reported as covering civic meetings without relying on the scheme.