“It’s Complicated”: Cognitive Dissonance and the Evolving Relationship Between Editorial and Advertising in US Newsrooms

ABSTRACT

Editorial and commercial functions in news organizations operate under conflicting values which dictate their separation lest commercial interests influence editorial decision-making. Yet this historic partition is challenged by the deterioration of the old advertiser-sponsored business model. The relationship is growing closer, at the risk of causing psychological discomfort to those involved. This study assesses what happens when senior editors encounter cognitive dissonance as they reconstruct the editorial-commercial relationship. It finds reluctance to embrace this evolving relationship, revealed in the fragmented and contradictory syntax editors use to talk about it as they are torn between the old (ethically driven) norm of how things should be, and the emerging (economically driven) norm of how things are. Yet, the paper suggests that cognitive dissonance may be the preferred state for any newsworker in an organization tasked with delivering news to a community which is not prepared to pay the full price for it, requiring some form of external subsidy. Rather than being dissonance that requires resolution, it becomes a vital, desirable tension whose perpetuation gives value to work.

KEYWORDS:

• Journalism
• newsrooms
• advertising
• editors
• cognitive dissonance

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.