This paper reports the findings from a comparative study of journalists from Britain, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden. Based on an email survey of 2,238 news professionals, we found that journalistic skills can be grouped into three distinctive dimensions: reporting, editorial and networking skills. The data also show some key similarities – reporting skills are the most highly valued across all six countries, and editorial skills the least valued. But there are also important differences, which we suggest can mainly be explained by historical differences in how the functional role of journalism has been viewed. Editorial skills are more highly valued in Germany, Italy and Poland and reporting skills are accorded the highest value in Britain and Sweden. The most interesting finding is perhaps the emergence of what seems like a new or at least somewhat different functional role of the journalist: that of the networker (emphasizing social skills like networking, teamwork and time management). Complementary data from a qualitative interview study of journalists in the same six countries indicate that this role is most prevalent among younger journalists and to a great extent is a response to changes in the organization of journalistic labor, e.g. increased prevalence of project work and work in ad hoc groups, increased labor precariousness, and the gradual convergence of the newsroom.