Daily AncestorReporter
A reporter gathered news and wrote stories for a newspaper; another kind of reporter recorded court or legislative proceedings.
A reporter is a journalist who researches, writes and reports news, often on an assigned beat; a young trainee was a cub reporter. Wiktionary also gives an older official sense, a person who records and issues reports of court or legislative proceedings, such as a court reporter.
The 1900 census instructions told enumerators to distinguish a journalist, editor or reporter from an author or other literary person who did not follow journalism as a profession.
As seen in a recordOccupation and industry columns of the 1910 to 1940 census
Frank Tulloch, 25, Reporter, Daily newspaper
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Reporter." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/reporter. Last checked 2026-10-12.