Searching for Autonomy in Digital News Entrepreneurism Projects

Digital entrepreneurism is often depicted as a positive disruption in the news ecosystem; it initiates new business models, fosters new ways of storytelling, and enables closer interaction with audiences. The extent to which entrepreneurial journalism entails a disruption of journalistic norms, roles, and procedures remains a matter of debate. Against this background, our study aims to explore how news entrepreneurism impacts journalistic autonomy on an organizational as well as an individual level. Conceptually, we define four dimensions of journalistic autonomy, namely organizational and procedural autonomy, as well as autonomy regarding professional norms and external influences such as funding and audiences. Empirically, we conducted interviews with founders of and journalists at 12 news startups in Germany. Our results indicate that both groups perceive a high level of autonomy in relation to professional norms and working procedures, and experience only little pressure from external influences. Still, the struggle for solid financing as well as the duality of economic and editorial duties limit both founders' and journalists' autonomy.