From Boundary to Bridge and Beyond: The Path to Professionalization of Product Roles in Journalism

ABSTRACT

New roles in news organizations have emerged supporting media products demonstrating a range of digital features. Along with the requirements of these products come a new set of skills and competencies to coordinate, develop, manage, and support them. Thus, product-related roles, previously considered on the periphery of a media organization, become more central and introduce challenges in their integration within traditional roles, processes and culture. This study identifies those performing in product and product-adjacent roles, the networks and boundaries across which they work, and the ways in which they make meaning across functions. Perceptions of those in product roles highlight a field of contradictions, in need of career development, respect within organizations, and role standardization, while maintaining the professional flexibility and agility that is necessary to drive innovation.

KEYWORDS:

• Product management
• boundary roles
• bridge roles
• digital media
• interloper media
• actor-network theory

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the News Product Alliance for collaborating on and sharing the data associated with their community survey. We would further like to thank the members of the News Product Alliance community for taking the time to complete the survey and offer their important insights on the emerging role of product management in journalism.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors.