Public roles and private negotiations: Considering city magazines’ public service and market functions

Abstract

Editors at city and regional magazines face the same competing loyalties as other local journalists, including sharing information about their cities while considering the interests of their organizations, readers, and advertisers. This study used in-depth interviews with city and regional magazine editors ( N = 11) around the country to explore how they navigate public and private interests affecting their work and the implications of these negotiations for their journalistic identity and the perceived functions of their publications in communities. The results shed light on how the editors negotiate a focus on private-service content, which attracts readers and revenue, and public-service content, which serves the magazines’ journalistic role.