How Perceived Environmental Uncertainty Influences the Marketing Orientation of U.S. Daily Newspapers

Abstract

The use of readership research to shape editorial content is becoming increasingly common at U.S. daily newspapers. This practice reflects a “marketing concept” of journalism, which emphasizes tailoring a product to customers' wants and needs. Data from seventy-eight daily newspapers suggest that as uncertainty about the organization's environment increases—specifically, uncertainty about how to serve readers—an organization will strengthen its marketing orientation. The data also suggest that environmental uncertainty is generally not affected by structural characteristics of the community in which the newspaper publishes. That is, there is little evidence that changes in or characteristics of the newspaper's “real” environment strongly influence the degree of uncertainty that editors have about their newspaper's environment.