The Relationship of Job Satisfaction to Newsroom Policy Changes

Abstract

The impact of newsroom policies on job satisfaction was studied in an onsite survey of 429 newsroom staffers at twelve West Coast daily newspapers. The study found that newsroom policy changes are affecting journalists' job satisfaction, primarily through the perceived impact of such changes on newspaper quality and on the balance between business and journalism in the newsroom. If the newspaper's quality was perceived as improving, job satisfaction was higher; if journalism was perceived as taking a back seat to business, job satisfaction was lower. Also important were the amount of emphasis on profits (which lowered job satisfaction) and on journalistic policies (which raised job satisfaction). Newspaper size was not found to be a major factor in job satisfaction, but ownership structure was.