面对中华民族危机，不愿“独善其身”的情怀及对治史的追求，促使曹聚仁走出书斋，成为一名战地记者；在新闻实践中，他探索了一条从侧面采写军事新闻的模式，并从自身经验出发提出了战地记者应具备的基本素质: 其一，战地记者必须养成“新闻眼”——透辟的观察力；其二，战地记者须懂得现代战略、战术。

There were two reasons why Cao Juren walked out of the ivory tower and became a war reporter: the responsibility of defending the country and the pursuit of researching history. Cao Juren explored a mode of writing military news in his journalism career, and put forward fundamental qualities of a war reporter from his own experience a war reporter must have penetrating observation ability; a war reporter need understand modern strategy and tactics.