Marketing Communications

In the course of its 154-year lifespan, The Atlantic has fashioned itself as a magazine for thought leaders and innovators, engaging readers through strong journalism that delivers “insightful analysis at rapid-fire pace to the country’s most influential users.” According to media experts, it is beneficial for a print brand to develop more than one platform of content not only for revenue purposes but to gain and retain an active audience. The Atlantic has pursued this route of multi-platform development effectively, producing six publications and services: The Atlantic magazine, TheAtlantic.com, The Atlantic Wire, AtlanticLIVE, the Atlantic Mobile and The Atlantic Cities. This study analyzes the efficacy of The Atlantic Cities [CityLab] as a brand / platform targeting Millennials.

In the early 2000s, along with the emergence of social media in journalism, mobile chat applications began to gain significant footing in journalistic work. Interdisciplinary research, particularly in journalism studies, has started to look at apps in journalistic work from producer and user perspectives. Still in its infancy, scholarly research on apps and journalistic work reflects larger trends explored in digital journalism studies, while expanding the understanding of mobile news.

This exploratory study examines the roles journalists rely on when covering social justice topics and what these role conceptions reveal about emotion and self expression values in news production. This article builds on Herbert Gans’ definition of what news is, discursive understandings of journalistic performance, and emotion in news to understand and operationalize journalists’ understandings of how their roles and reporting practices shape news coverage of social justice topics. Findings from qualitative interviews with journalists suggest that journalists that cover social justice topics seek to guide, motivate, and inspire audiences by utilizing emotion in the stories they choose to cover. Interview data shows that emotion and emotional labor are important components of the production of social justice news. This article adds to theoretical and practical understandings of how journalists that cover social justice topics discursively construct their professional roles, and how emotions contribute to a contemporary understanding of journalism and news.

Journalism scholars have acknowledged the importance of innovation in journalism. A common finding is that journalism has difficulty adapting to change and uses multiple coping mechanisms, including making excuses for not innovating by relying on their professional norms and practices. However, such research does not more broadly show how journalism studies research has shaped what scholars have learned about innovation practices. The goal of this study is to provide a systematic literature review of news innovation research since the 1990s. This article deploys a qualitative content analysis of peer-reviewed journal articles about news innovation in media and journalism studies. It shows that journalism and media scholars discuss news innovation as normative, participative, and experimentative. Journalism studies scholarship has also focused on innovation as a process, integrating elements of audience engagement, structure, system, and network. The goal of this study is twofold. First, it discusses the methodological and conceptual/theoretical approaches taken in scholarly journal articles about news innovation. Second, it outlines limitations of such approaches and draws conclusions to conceptualize knowledge in this subfield of research. It argues that it is important to take into account those limitations, as they pose problems for the cumulative nature of news innovation research knowledge.

As news publishers consider transitioning their business models from ad to subscription focused, the News Media Alliance continues to offer insights into consumer preferences and motivations to subscribe, to help publishers hone their product offerings and tweak their marketing strategies to grow their subscriber bases. In this installment of the Driving Digital Subscriptions series, we provide an in-depth look at the findings from a new and enlightening research study of media subscribers, including print and digital news media, cable TV and video and audio streaming. We were delighted to commission this research with the Star Tribune, and to work with researchers from the University of Minnesota Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication to field and compile the results. The primary goals of this research were to understand consumers’ willingness to pay for news and entertainment media (aka their “media diet”), as well as their motivations (aka their “media appetite”) for subscribing. It is unique in that the research focuses on a single geographic market, providing in-depth insights into the behavior and motivations of subscribers to the local newspaper, a group whose attitudes and preferences prove valuable to retention efforts. While this study was intentionally designed to help one specific geographic market understand its audience, our broader goal is to repeat this study in other markets across the country, to gain a greater understanding of the similarities and differences between markets nationwide, and aid news publishers in crafting their long-term strategies to attract and retain subscribers.

ABSTRACT Journalism scholars have acknowledged the importance of innovation in journalism. A common finding is that journalism has difficulty adapting to change and uses multiple coping mechanisms, including making excuses for not innovating by relying on their professional norms and practices. However, such research does not more broadly show how journalism studies research has shaped what scholars have learned about innovation practices. The goal of this study is to provide a systematic literature review of news innovation research since the 1990s. This article deploys a qualitative content analysis of peer-reviewed journal articles about news innovation in media and journalism studies. It shows that journalism and media scholars discuss news innovation as normative, participative, and experimentative. Journalism studies scholarship has also focused on innovation as a process, integrating elements of audience engagement, structure, system, and network. The goal of this study is twofold. First, it discusses the methodological and conceptual/theoretical approaches taken in scholarly journal articles about news innovation. Second, it outlines limitations of such approaches and draws conclusions to conceptualize knowledge in this subfield of research. It argues that it is important to take into account those limitations, as they pose problems for the cumulative nature of news innovation research knowledge.

ABSTRACT This exploratory study examines the roles journalists rely on when covering social justice topics and what these role conceptions reveal about emotion and self expression values in news production. This article builds on Herbert Gans’ definition of what news is, discursive understandings of journalistic performance, and emotion in news to understand and operationalize journalists’ understandings of how their roles and reporting practices shape news coverage of social justice topics. Findings from qualitative interviews with journalists suggest that journalists that cover social justice topics seek to guide, motivate, and inspire audiences by utilizing emotion in the stories they choose to cover. Interview data shows that emotion and emotional labor are important components of the production of social justice news. This article adds to theoretical and practical understandings of how journalists who cover social justice topics discursively construct their professional roles, and how emotions contribute to a contemporary understanding of journalism and news.

In the early 2000s, along with the emergence of social media in journalism, mobile chat applications began to gain significant footing in journalistic work. Interdisciplinary research, particularly in journalism studies, has started to look at apps in journalistic work from producer and user perspectives. Still in its infancy, scholarly research on apps and journalistic work reflects larger trends explored in digital journalism studies, while expanding the understanding of mobile news.

This dissertation provides a theoretically driven empirical investigation of the emerging institution of solutions journalism. Solutions journalism is a journalistic approach defined as rigorous reporting on responses to social problems. This project uses a triangulated qualitative methodology comprising 52 in-depth interviews; netnography of solutions journalists, editors, and practitioners’ digital communities; and qualitative content analysis of solutions-oriented journalistic texts. This dissertation presents three major arguments. The first argument is that solutions journalism is a journalistic approach that functions globally as a networked organizational form with a central mission and decentralized hubs and spokes that carry out the practice worldwide. The second argument is that emerging institutions gain legitimacy through shared support for a codified set of rules, norms, and values, as seen in the legitimation of solutions journalism. The third and final argument is that solutions journalism is in a moment between theorization and diffusion worldwide, with various factors contributing to and constraining its success. Drawing from foundational roots in sociological and managerial literature, this dissertation project expands the applicability of new institutional theory to empirical questions about emerging news practices. This dissertation also answers calls for clarity of the theorization and conceptualization of solutions journalism.