The Organization of Journalism: Market Models and Practice in a Fraying Profession

New business models have splintered journalists’ once-monolithic professional culture. Where the organization once had little sway in the newsroom, in today’s journalism ecosystem, owners and management influence newsgathering more than ever.

Using rich interviews and participant observation, Patrick Ferrucci examines institutions with funding mechanisms that range from traditional mogul ownership and online-only nonprofits to staff-owned cooperatives and hedge fund control. The variations in market models have frayed the tenets of professionalization, with unique work cultures emerging from each organization’s focus on its mission and the implantation of its own processes and ethical guidelines. As a result, the field of American journalism no longer shares uniform newsgathering practices and a common identity, a break with the past that affects what information we consume today and what the press will become tomorrow.

An inside look at a fracturing profession, The Organization of Journalism illuminates the institution’s expanding impact on newsgathering and the people who practice it.

Patrick Ferrucci is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the author of Making Nonprofit News: Market Models, Influence, and Journalism Practice, coauthor of Reviving Rural News: Transforming the Business Model of Community Journalism in the US and Beyond, and coeditor of The Institutions Changing Journalism: Barbarians Inside the Gate.