Maria Rosario F. Hofileña started out as a reporter in 1985 for the Philippine Daily Inquirer and covered the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). She then moved to The Manila Chronicle and covered the House of Representatives and the DFA. She later wrote in-depth stories for The Sunday Chronicle and investigative stories for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) while working with the Ateneo Center for Social Policy as a publications editor.

She then joined The Manila Times as writer for its Sunday edition, and then became its associate editor. Newspaper work was interrupted in 1997 by journalism graduate studies at Columbia University in New York. Upon her return in 1998, she started teaching journalism courses to undergraduate students and wrote about corruption in the Philippine media for PCIJ in "News for Sale." With two other women journalists, she started Newsbreak Magazine in 2001.

In 2000, she was training director of the Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism before becoming full-time as program director of its Journalism graduate program until April in 2006. She continues to write for Newsbreak Magazine.