He started his journalism career working as a reporter for daily newspapers in Florida and Maryland. In 2000, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he covered Congress for Communications Daily, a leading trade journal in the telecommunications industry. In 2005, Terry moved to public affairs, working as a press secretary for the House Energy & Commerce Committee and as a communications director for the House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming. His experience in Congress set him up to later work as a communications aid at the American Petroleum Institute. After pausing his career to help care for a relative, Terry returned to his local journalism roots in 2015, taking a position as editor of the weekly Lumina News newspaper in Wrightsville Beach, N.C Two years later, he took ownership of the publication and served as publisher for three years. During the pandemic, Terry covered energy and economics as a freelance journalist before joining The Balance in March 2022.