Very happy upholding story by journalist (6)
I believe the answer is:
elated
'very happy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'upholding story by journalist' is the wordplay.
'upholding' says the letters should be written backwards (I've seen 'upheld' mean this).
'story' becomes 'tale' (synonyms).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'journalist' becomes 'ed' (short for editor).
'tale' back-to-front is 'elat'.
'elat'+'ed'='ELATED'
(Other definitions for elated that I've seen before include "Overjoyed, happy and excited" , "Joyful, uplifted" , "Euphoric" , "Greatly delighted and proud" , "Very pleased, quite high" .)