Skilful journalist following up story on books (8)
I believe the answer is:
talented
'skilful' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'journalist following up story on books' is the wordplay.
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'following up' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'story' becomes 'tale' ('tale' can be a synonym of 'story').
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'books' becomes 'nt' (New Testament).
'tale'+'nt'='talent'
'ed' put after 'talent' is 'TALENTED'.
(Other definitions for talented that I've seen before include "Skilful" , "Clever" , "Having a natural aptitude or skill" , "Possessing aptitude" , "Skilled" .)