Senior journalist from America given employment (4)
I believe the answer is:
used
'employment' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'senior journalist from america given' is the wordplay.
'senior journalist' becomes 'ed' (abbreviation for editor).
'from america' becomes 'US' (United States).
'given' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'ed' after 'us' is 'USED'.
(Other definitions for used that I've seen before include "given employment" , "Dog-eared" , "Pre-owned" , "Went through" , "That's not new" .)