From organisational crisis to multiplatform salvation? Creative destruction and the recomposition of news media

Schumpeter’s trope of ‘creative destruction’ aptly describes current transformations of news media whose business models are adjusting to the twin challenges of digitization and the Internet. While most production studies focus on the journalistic labour process, based on current empirical research into the UK press and access to key decision-makers, this article presents case studies of the strategies pursued by the Financial Times and The Telegraph in migrating from print to digital. It shows how new conceptions of the news business are being articulated by managements, how production is being reshaped and increasingly driven by data analytics, and poses questions about the impact of these changes on journalistic practices.