Exploring telework innovation’s value for news workers

Abstract

This chapter offers a framework for examining the advantages and challenges associated with a significant innovation in newsroom work that emerged during the Covid-19 crisis: the introduction of teleworking. Applying service innovation research perspectives, which emphasise that innovations should create value for all stakeholders, our study explores how news workers experienced the swift and extensive shift to digital work modes during lockdowns and periods of strict social distancing. The analysis, based on interviews with reporters, developers, and newsroom managers in three leading newspaper companies in Norway, shows how working at a distance by means of digital tools generated complex and ambiguous value experiences among news workers. Based on this, we argue that future research applying service innovation perspectives on journalism needs to pay more attention to the value of innovations for employees. Otherwise, this research risks overlooking a stakeholder group which plays a key role in news media’s service provision to the public.