{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,27]],"date-time":"2026-05-27T22:08:28Z","timestamp":1779919708198,"version":"3.53.1"},"reference-count":73,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,17]],"date-time":"2024-05-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1715904000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["ITP"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,19]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>Tracing audience preferences via audience analytics software has become a vital strategy for many news organizations to ensure their competitiveness in media markets. Extant research also confirms the growing presence of these tools in digital news work in recent years across many local and international news media. However, little is understood about the analytics-driven tensions emerging among journalists and media managers. This paper aims to address this gap by drawing on the labor process theory, which critically analyzes labor and workplace transformations under capitalism.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>The present study employs an interview-based qualitative methodology to deeply understand the factors at the base of the emerging tensions between news workers and managers brought about by audience metrics tools.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>Results show how some perceptions, activities and contextual triggers related to analytics could make relationships between workers and managers problematic. The pressures felt by some journalists stemmed from the way their media managers introduced, interpreted, communicated and applied analytics in the workplace, which were not tied to the quality and learning goals related to journalists\u2019 aspirations. As our evidence suggests, the analytics-induced tensions among news workers were rather an outcome of managerial deficits than of systematic plans to exploit journalists.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>By identifying the nature of fundamental analytics-driven tensions in newsrooms, this paper contributes to our understanding of how media managers can embrace more effective approaches toward audience analytics, workforce and organizational performance.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/itp-08-2023-0864","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,17]],"date-time":"2024-05-17T11:23:38Z","timestamp":1715945018000},"page":"1991-2014","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Audience analytics and tensions in digital news work: evidence from Swiss news media"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"38","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0611-006X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Afshin","family":"Omidi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4400-0075","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cinzia","family":"Dal Zotto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Robert G.","family":"Picard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"140","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Achtenhagen, L. and Cestino, J. (2020), \u201cQualitative methods in media management research\u201d, in Rimscha, M.B. (Ed.), Management and Economics of Communication, De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin, pp.\u00a0129-148.","DOI":"10.1515\/9783110589542-007"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"32","DOI":"10.1080\/14241270802518505","article-title":"Balancing tensions during convergence: duality management in a newspaper company","volume":"11","year":"2009","journal-title":"International Journal on Media Management"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref003","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1080\/17512786.2021.1927803","article-title":"Factors influencing the use of journalism analytics as a management tool in Egyptian news organizations","volume":"17","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journalism Practice"},{"issue":"8","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref004","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"993","DOI":"10.1080\/17512786.2019.1642132","article-title":"The two faces of janus: web analytics companies and the shifting culture of news","volume":"13","year":"2019","journal-title":"Journalism Practice"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref005","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"347","DOI":"10.1080\/21670811.2019.1709521","article-title":"Role orientations and audience metrics in newsrooms: an examination of journalistic perceptions and their drivers","volume":"8","year":"2020","journal-title":"Digital Journalism"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref006","unstructured":"Bonfadelli, H., Meier, W.A. and Schanne, M. (2021), \u201cSwitzerland: highly concentrated leading news media in austerity and downsizing mode\u201d, in Trappel, J. and Tomaz, T. (Eds), Switzerland: Highly Concentrated Leading News Media in Austerity and Downsizing Mode, Nordicom, Goteborg, Vol.\u00a01, pp.\u00a0381-454."},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref007","volume-title":"Labor and Monopoly Capital: the Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century","year":"1998"},{"issue":"7","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref008","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"890","DOI":"10.1177\/1464884916688963","article-title":"Management and resistance in the digital newsroom","volume":"20","year":"2019","journal-title":"Journalism"},{"issue":"9","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref009","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1361","DOI":"10.1080\/17512786.2021.1971549","article-title":"Between structures and identities: newsroom policies, division of labor and journalists' commitment to investigative reporting","volume":"15","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journalism Practice"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref010","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"406","DOI":"10.1080\/21670811.2018.1445003","article-title":"Confronting measurable journalism","volume":"6","year":"2018","journal-title":"Digital Journalism"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref011","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1382","DOI":"10.1086\/696137","article-title":"Counting clicks: quantification and variation in web journalism in the United States and France","volume":"123","year":"2018","journal-title":"American Journal of Sociology"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref012","volume-title":"Metrics at Work: Journalism and the Contested Meaning of Algorithms","year":"2020"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref013","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"133","DOI":"10.6092\/issn.1971-8853\/11178","article-title":"Making peace with metrics: relational work in online news production","volume":"14","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sociologica"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref014","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"571","DOI":"10.1080\/21670811.2017.1419821","article-title":"At work in the digital newsroom","volume":"7","year":"2019","journal-title":"Digital Journalism"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref015","volume-title":"Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Tradition","year":"2007"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref016","volume-title":"Media Work","year":"2007"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref017","volume-title":"Beyond Journalism","year":"2020"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref018","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.12724\/ajss.54.1","article-title":"Toward a theory of atypical media work and social hope","volume":"19","year":"2020","journal-title":"Artha Journal of Social Sciences"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref019","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"755","DOI":"10.1177\/14648849211052419","article-title":"Data-driven news work culture: reconciling tensions in epistemic values and practices of news journalism","volume":"23","year":"2022","journal-title":"Journalism"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref020","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"436","DOI":"10.1080\/21670811.2018.1440972","article-title":"The Audience-Oriented Editor: making sense of the audience in the newsroom","volume":"6","year":"2018","journal-title":"Digital Journalism"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref021","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"270","DOI":"10.17645\/mac.v8i3.3228","article-title":"In the service of good journalism and audience interests? How audience metrics affect news quality","volume":"8","year":"2020","journal-title":"Media and Communication"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref022","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.1177\/1094428112452151","article-title":"Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research","volume":"16","year":"2013","journal-title":"Organizational Research Methods"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref023","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1080\/17512786.2021.1949627","article-title":"The networked newsroom: navigating new boundaries of work","volume":"18","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journalism Practice"},{"issue":"6","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref024","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1177\/14648849231174059","article-title":"Labouring the news: management control strategies and work intensification in the digital newsroom","volume":"25","year":"2023","journal-title":"Journalism"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref025","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"427","DOI":"10.1080\/21670811.2021.1890170","article-title":"Becoming the data-informed newsroom? The promotion of audience metrics in the newsroom and journalists' interactions with them","volume":"9","year":"2021","journal-title":"Digital Journalism"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref026","volume-title":"Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries","year":"2013"},{"issue":"3-4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref027","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"95","DOI":"10.1177\/19312431211045741","article-title":"Not on air, but online: the labor conditions of the digital journalist in U.S. Local television newsrooms","volume":"15","year":"2021","journal-title":"Electronic News"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref028","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"157","DOI":"10.1080\/14241277.2015.1084306","article-title":"Paradoxes of strategic renewal in traditional print-oriented media firms","volume":"17","year":"2015","journal-title":"International Journal on Media Management"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref029","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"31","DOI":"10.1080\/13183222.1997.11008639","article-title":"Towards a labour-process history of newsworkers","volume":"4","year":"1997","journal-title":"Javnost - The Public"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref030","first-page":"5","article-title":"Marxian critiques of Thompson's (1990)\u2019core\u2019labour process theory: an evaluation and extension","volume":"5","year":"2005","journal-title":"Ephemera"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref031","volume-title":"Labour Process Theory","year":"1990"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref032","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"51","DOI":"10.1080\/16522354.2019.1639890","article-title":"Managing news nerds: strategizing about institutional change in the news industry","volume":"17","year":"2020","journal-title":"Journal of Media Business Studies"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref033","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1080\/17512786.2021.1954058","article-title":"Audience metrics: operationalizing news value for the digital newsroom","volume":"17","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journalism Practice"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref034","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"358","DOI":"10.1080\/17512786.2019.1617043","article-title":"Six uses of analytics: digital editors' perceptions of audience analytics in the newsroom","volume":"14","year":"2020","journal-title":"Journalism Practice"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref035","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"477","DOI":"10.1080\/1461670X.2019.1686411","article-title":"Beaten by chartbeat? An experimental study on the effect of real-time audience analytics on journalists' news judgment","volume":"21","year":"2020","journal-title":"Journalism Studies"},{"issue":"1-2","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref036","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1177\/19312431211018141","article-title":"Do metrics drive news decisions? Political news journalists' exposure and attitudes toward web analytics","volume":"15","year":"2021","journal-title":"Electronic News"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref037","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"397","DOI":"10.1080\/13639080701814315","article-title":"Braverman, Foucault and the labor process: framing the current high\u2010skills debate","volume":"20","year":"2007","journal-title":"Journal of Education and Work"},{"issue":"12","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref038","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1701","DOI":"10.1080\/1461670X.2021.1911672","article-title":"Journalistic passion as commodity: a managerial perspective","volume":"22","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journalism Studies"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref039","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1080\/16522354.2019.1699764","article-title":"Fluid institutional logics in digital journalism","volume":"17","year":"2020","journal-title":"Journal of Media Business Studies"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref040","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"430","DOI":"10.1177\/1464884918788472","article-title":"Logics in social media news making: how social media editors marry the Facebook logic with journalistic standards","volume":"22","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journalism"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref041","volume-title":"Doing Interview-Based Qualitative Research: A Learner\u2019s Guide","year":"2015"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref042","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/14648849211061958","article-title":"\u2018Why I quit journalism:\u2019 Former journalists' advice giving as a way to regain control","volume":"24","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journalism"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref043","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"490","DOI":"10.1080\/21670811.2018.1533788","article-title":"Analytics-driven journalism? Editorial metrics and the reconfiguration of online news production practices in African newsrooms","volume":"7","year":"2019","journal-title":"Digital Journalism"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref044","volume-title":"Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences","year":"2011"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref045","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"79","DOI":"10.1080\/14241277.2012.675753","article-title":"Audience evolution and the future of audience research","volume":"14","year":"2012","journal-title":"International Journal on Media Management"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref046","volume-title":"Imagined Audiences: How Journalists Perceive and Pursue the Public","year":"2021"},{"issue":"13","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref047","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1960","DOI":"10.1080\/1461670X.2018.1547122","article-title":"Doing \u2018well\u2019 or doing \u2018good\u2019: what audience analytics reveal about journalism's competing goals","volume":"20","year":"2019","journal-title":"Journalism Studies"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref048","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"9","DOI":"10.1080\/14241277.2016.1166430","article-title":"Audience currencies in the age of big data","volume":"18","year":"2016","journal-title":"International Journal on Media Management"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref049","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"157","DOI":"10.3390\/journalmedia3010013","article-title":"The nature of work in the media industries: a literature review and future directions","volume":"3","year":"2022","journal-title":"Journalism and Media"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref050","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.1177\/1464884909350644","article-title":"Technology and journalism-as-labour: historical perspectives","volume":"11","year":"2010","journal-title":"Journalism"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref051","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"509","DOI":"10.1080\/21670811.2018.1444998","article-title":"Engineering consent: how the design and marketing of newsroom analytics tools rationalize journalists' labor","volume":"6","year":"2018","journal-title":"Digital Journalism"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref052","volume-title":"All the News That's Fit to Click: How Metrics are Transforming the Work of Journalists","year":"2021"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref053","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"488","DOI":"10.1080\/17512786.2014.905338","article-title":"Twilight or new dawn of journalism?","volume":"8","year":"2014","journal-title":"Journalism Practice"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref054","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Picard, R.G. (2017), \u201cFunding digital journalism: the challenges of consumers and the economic value of news\u201d, in Franklin, B. and Eldridge II, S.A. (Eds), The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies, Routledge.","DOI":"10.4324\/9781315713793-15"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref055","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"454","DOI":"10.1080\/21670811.2018.1445002","article-title":"Selecting Metrics, Reflecting Norms: how journalists in local newsrooms define, measure, and discuss impact","volume":"6","year":"2018","journal-title":"Digital Journalism"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref056","volume-title":"Organizing Independence: Negotiations between Journalism and Management in News Organizations","year":"2022"},{"issue":"8","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref057","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1129","DOI":"10.1080\/17512786.2020.1776141","article-title":"\u2018This is my exit sign\u2019: job control deficit, role strain and turnover in Mexican journalism","volume":"15","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journalism Practice"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref058","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1080\/17512786.2022.2104745","article-title":"You said digital first! A five-dimensional definition according to journalists from three Swiss newspapers","year":"2022","journal-title":"Journalism Practice"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref059","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"60","DOI":"10.1080\/1461670X.2020.1854619","article-title":"The economics of news and the practice of news production","volume":"22","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journalism Studies"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref060","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"487","DOI":"10.1111\/joms.12587","article-title":"Meanings of theory: clarifying theory through typification","volume":"58","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journal of Management Studies"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref061","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"403","DOI":"10.1177\/0730888494021004004","article-title":"Braverman's legacy","volume":"21","year":"1994","journal-title":"Work and Occupations"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref062","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"222","DOI":"10.1177\/0160449X15607154","article-title":"Continuity and change in labor process analysis forty years after labor and monopoly capital","volume":"40","year":"2015","journal-title":"Labor Studies Journal"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref063","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"381","DOI":"10.5465\/amr.2009.0223","article-title":"Toward a theory of paradox: a dynamic equilibrium model of organizing","volume":"36","year":"2011","journal-title":"Academy of Management Review"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref064","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/10776990211042593","article-title":"Factors affecting turnover and turnaway intention of journalists in South Korea","volume":"99","year":"2021","journal-title":"Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref065","unstructured":"Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1994), \u201cGrounded theory methodology: an overview\u201d, in Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds), Handbook of Qualitative Research, Sage Publications, pp.\u00a0273-285."},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref066","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"559","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444814530541","article-title":"Journalism is twerking? How web analytics is changing the process of gatekeeping","volume":"16","year":"2014","journal-title":"New Media and Society"},{"issue":"8","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref067","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"950","DOI":"10.1080\/17512786.2015.1087811","article-title":"The journalist is marketing the news: social media in the gatekeeping process","volume":"10","year":"2016","journal-title":"Journalism Practice"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref068","volume-title":"The Nature of Work: An Introduction to Debates on the Labour Process","year":"1989"},{"key":"key2025051605565795500_ref069","unstructured":"Thompson, P. and Newsome, K. (2004), \u201cLabor process theory, work, and the employment relation\u201d, in Kaufman, B.E. (Ed.), Theoretical Perspectives on Work and the Employment Relationship, Industrial Relations Research Association, pp.\u00a0133-162."},{"issue":"3","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref070","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"518","DOI":"10.2307\/258907","article-title":"Foucault, power\/knowledge, and its relevance for human resource management","volume":"18","year":"1993","journal-title":"The Academy of Management Review"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref071","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"418","DOI":"10.1080\/21670811.2018.1444999","article-title":"Quantified audiences in news production: a synthesis and research agenda","volume":"6","year":"2018","journal-title":"Digital Journalism"},{"issue":"10","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref072","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1763","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444819881735","article-title":"Constructing audience quantification: social influences and the development of norms about audience analytics and metrics","volume":"22","year":"2020","journal-title":"New Media and Society"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2025051605565795500_ref073","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"492","DOI":"10.1080\/21670811.2018.1445001","article-title":"Boundary work, interloper media, and analytics in newsrooms","volume":"6","year":"2018","journal-title":"Digital Journalism"}],"container-title":["Information Technology &amp; People"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/ITP-08-2023-0864\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/ITP-08-2023-0864\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,24]],"date-time":"2025-07-24T21:55:26Z","timestamp":1753394126000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/itp\/article\/38\/4\/1991-2014\/1263707"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,17]]},"references-count":73,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,17]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,19]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/ITP-08-2023-0864"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/itp-08-2023-0864","relation":{},"ISSN":["0959-3845"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0959-3845","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,17]]}}}