Daily newspaper editors' audience construction routines: A case study

This case study at a large daily newspaper used non‐participant observation and focused interviews to describe the work routines of editors. Unlike earlier newsroom sociologies, this study did not find that editors used budget meetings to construct an organizational definition of newsworthiness or to advance their position in the hierarchy. Instead, they used imaginary interlocutors, critiques from more experienced editors, and conversations in and outside of budget meetings to construct substitutes for several possible audiences. Typifications used by the editors predicted how readers from these different audiences would react to story selections. Earlier studies likely failed to describe these routines because they focused on the behavior of reporters or because of long‐term changes in news institutions.