Editorial Strategies and the Transformation of Italian Journalists’ Work in the Digital Environment

Section: Sociology of Journalism

The article presents the results of a study conducted in eight Italian local newspapers undergoing digital transformation. Three strategies for organizing the online work of the editorial staff are identified: setting up a special Internet department, distributing the online functions among all editorial staff and creating a convergent editorial board in which journalists combine work in different types of media. The study also shows why some editorial boards cannot work effectively on the web. In addition, in the course of the study some characteristics of working practices of Italian journalists are revealed and compared with those of their Russian counterparts. A comparison of the ways journalists in Russia and in Italy handle information sources is also presented. The study demonstrates that Italian local newspapers have gone online more successfully than Russian regional and city publications: in the Russian local press many newspapers offer only print editions, while all Italian newspapers publish at least a minimal amount of multimedia content on their website.

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