A “nose for news” means the instinctive skill or facility for discovering things.

In journalism, specifically, it means the ability to ferret out newsworthy things

from routine or trivial day-to-day activities or occurrences. A person who has a
nose for news is naturally inquisitive and with a strong interest in affairs or
events other than those that involve himself or herself

Nose for news is the ability to sniff out news from unlikely sources. Just as rats
smell the aroma of fried fish from long distance, a journalist must also be able
to sniff out the aroma of news from the lowest degree of concentration to that of
high degree of concentration.

As a journalist, you must be able to scoop out the news where ever it is hidden.

The concept of nose for news has the following features:

 It is the ability to perceive events that are news worthy,

 the ability to uncover fact that will enable proper contextualization of the
event,
 ability to exhibit a good news judgment all the time,
 ability to persevere in the search for more details,
 ability to utilize the information or clues gathered which will make the
story sound more interesting,
 Also the ability to use the gathered fact in a way that it will yield more
information about an event.

A reporter must always know where the news is coming from, has a knowledge
of men, events or matters or people and places, knows where to go when a story
breaks or when to give a story an in-dept interpretation, he should also maintain
all possible contact like individuals or groups that provides relevant information
during a news break, he knows how to allocate news to relevant pages, he
should also keep records of news-event through diary and some newspaper
cutting for later consultation, etc.