Abandoned dry area found by journalist (8)
I believe the answer is:
deserted
'abandoned' is the definition.
(I know that abandoned can be written as deserted)
'dry area found by journalist' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'dry' could be 'desert' (I've seen this before) and 'desert' is found in the answer.
'journalist' could be 'ed' (short for editor) and 'ed' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for deserted that I've seen before include "Illegally left army" , "Ran away from army" , "defected,renounced" , "Defected, renounced" , "Empty of people" .)