Autonomy Behind the Paywall: Subscription-Chasing and Journalistic Freedom at the Level of Practice

Abstract

ABSTRACT Addressing the growing phenomenon of datafied paywalling, an ethnographic case study examined journalistic autonomy at the level of day-to-day activities in Finnish tabloid Iltalehti, which launched a chargeable service Iltalehti Plus in March 2021. Created “from scratch,” the service formed a unique laboratory to scrutinise paywalling and the connected use of audience metrics in a tabloid context. Against the backdrop of Henrik Örnebring and Michael Karlsson’s interpretation of journalistic autonomy, the article examines the boundaries of financial and audience considerations, the Iltalehti Plus journalists’ agency, and the ways in which they legitimated autonomy. The findings suggest that in certain conditions paywalling may lead to thoroughly metrics-driven journalistic practices and a remarkably strong market orientation in journalism. In Iltalehti Plus, journalists accepted and internalised the market orientation even on individual level, considering it as developing their professional skills. The legitimation of market-oriented journalism was based on the idea of securing the future of journalism.