Abstract
News work conducted more like business creates clashes between the journalistic and managerial professional ethos of editors. While journalists’ professional ethos includes values of self-regulation, autonomy, and public service, managerialism promotes business ideals, measurable outcomes, and organizational efficiency—values that business journalism is claimed to support. This article aims to show how editors negotiate their work-related ethos at the junction of two professional discourses. The article is based on 20 semi-structured interviews of editors in four Nordic business newsrooms. The results reveal a new hybrid professional ethos that combines managerial practices with journalistic ideals. Furthermore, editors in business journalism tend to absorb managerial tendencies more easily due to close connection to financial and commercial communities. Strong journalistic principles prevail, but managerial ideals are considered a notable part of the new editorial work ethos.
Highlights
The digitalization of news media has put newsrooms face to face with changing work practices
During the news industry’s recent volatile years, news‐ room management, the editors, have faced the biggest changes in their work: In addition to good journalism, editors must understand the business of news and man‐ age news production
As a result of the interviews, I gather here four sets of ideals that appear in the edi‐ tors’ work: they appreciate the position of a manager and see management as important; they find efficiency and results valuable; they value the public service role of journalism though the connotation is changing; and pre‐ serving autonomy and self‐regulation of the profession qualifies the editors to supervise journalists
Summary
The digitalization of news media has put newsrooms face to face with changing work practices. In journalism research, observing the construction of professional identity has focused on the profession’s value system and shared understanding of being a good journalist (e.g., Deuze, 2007; Kunelius & Ruusunoksa, 2008; Wiik, 2010). This construction is not static or defined and it closely connects with the profession’s work practices, though certain ideas are considered elements of “real journalism”; journalists perceive themselves as impartial and autonomous professionals in the service of the public good Journalists’ attitudes and values are affected by national media systems (Hallin & Mancini, 2003), and different specialized areas, like business journalism, tend to have their own nuances (e.g., Butterick, 2015; Orange & Turner, 2013; Reunanen & Koljonen, 2018; Slaatta & Kjær, 2007)
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