An ability to write well is essential. Here are three reasons why.

1) You want your story to be read. You are competing for attention and need to grab it. It doesn't matter how outstanding your investigative skills are if tedious copy turns readers away.

2) You want your story to be understood. Clear, tight copy gets the salient points across, whether it's for news, analysis or a feature.

3) You want to progress in your career. If you want to become an editor, you need to show you know how to write well.

"The mistakes will get caught and ironed out by the person who’s job it is to do so". I think this says it all.

Good writing is very important!

Yes. Journalism is as much about storytelling as it is about story gathering. Writing for your medium (whether it's print, broadcast, Twitter or any other) is an essential skill.

Agree with Mark.

You read so much stuff where the writer has interesting content, good facts and nice quotes, but has then strung the lot together like they are in pre-school. You find it all the time on blogs, people have an interesting story to tell, but can't tell it very well. If you are a professional journalist then you should be able to set yourself above the average blogger by presenting more thoughtfully written prose.

Even as someone whose job entails more story 'construction' (i.e. from social media building blocks) than old-fashioned writing, the skill of narrative that comes from writing is hugely important. Being able to string a narrative together, being able to assemble a story's constituent parts into a flowing thread that tells a story, comes from years of writing, as does the attention to linguistic detail that a pedantic, careful writer will always bring to the task.

The old 'it's a sub's job to correct my work' line is bullshit. A sub is there to fact-check, check for libel, catch the few mistakes a journalist lets slip through, and cut where a piece runs too long. They're not there to re-write. A story should only have to be written once.