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Scholars are paying a growing attention to the culture of innovation in news organizations (Dal Zotto and van Kranenburg, 2008; Küng, 2013; Sádaba, García-Avilés, and Martínez-Costa, 2016). However, the literature on media innovation tends to focus on adoption, implementation, and diffusion of products and technologies, with little emphasis on the design, development, and management stages of innovation (Dogruel, 2014). Research has largely ignored the question of how journalists learn in the newsroom and how they implement innovation (Porcu, 2017). The role of newsroom managers in innovation strategies is usually invisible and empirical measurements of in-house innovation within the media are scarce (Bleyen et al., 2014). As Weiss and Domingo (2010, p. 1158) put it, a deeper theoretical framework is needed regarding “the actors, dynamics and factors involved in the processes, theories that acknowledge the changing nature of journalism.”

Innovation “combines discovering an opportunity, blueprinting an idea to seize that opportunity, and implementing that idea to achieve results” (Anthony, 2012, p. 17). Translated to the media industry, this means that innovation must involve something more than the repetitive cycle of everyday news production. For this study, we define journalism innovation as:

the capacity to react to changes in products, processes and services using creative skills that allow a problem or need to be identified, and to be solved through a solution that results in the introduction of something new that adds value to customers and to the media organization.

(García-Avilés et al., 2018, p. 29)

This definition, provided by a group of researchers from the Miguel Hernández University, was applied to the design of the Journalistic Innovation Index of Spanish media (De-Lara-González et al., 2015). We further analyzed how many newsrooms disseminate these innovations and what factors accelerate or slow their implementation (García-Avilés et al., 2019), also in particular case studies such as digital-only news outlet El Confidencial and the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE innovation lab (Zaragoza-Fuster and García-Avilés, 2020).

The brakes on innovation are mostly cultural, rooted in the newsroom as systemic practices and preferred work patterns (Ess, 2013). There is no successful single recipe of media transformation and adaptation to the new realities. Going from products to services, from hardware to software, and from audience to users, includes changing mindsets, unlearning the trade and experimenting with bold ideas (Storsul and Krumsvik, 2013). The individual mindset determines what ideas lead to innovation in the newsroom: “Inventions within a variety of newsroom structures support the general truth that innovation and change usually start with the ideas of individual creators” (Gynnild, 2014, p. 720). Experimentation produces mixed results on what works or could work when it comes to creating commercially successful services and products.

A holistic perspective on innovation must include the pre-phase of the innovation process, considering for example goal setting, customer research, or observation of competitors (Dal Zotto and van Kranenburg, 2008). Taking a step further, Bleyen et al. (2014, p. 48) established a typology of media innovations based on five categories: business model, production and distribution, media consumption, inner form, and core product. The first three categories are related to innovation processes, and the latter two highlight product innovations, such as a groundbreaking television news program or an original podcast.

Therefore, media innovation encompasses complex processes that involve people’s motivations, strategy, structure, administrative processes, and systems that could create value for the organization, because the characteristics of the media sector differ from those of other industries (Küng, 2017). Specific features include the perishable commodity of the news product, creative employees, intricate organizational structures, and a public service role, among others. As Sádaba, García-Avilés, and Martínez-Costa (2016) argue, strategic innovation leads to better services and increased responsiveness to users and, therefore, an increase in sales, subscriptions, or audiences. In Pavlik’s words (2013, p. 190), “innovation is the key to the viability of news media in the digital age.”

Innovation does not only relate to products and technologies but also relate to the reinvention of social processes and the creation of services that improve people’s lives (Fagerberg, Mowery, and Nelson, 2005). Innovating consists of providing a novel solution for a problem that is more effective, efficient, or sustainable than existing solutions. Innovation should not be reduced to technology. In fact, non-technological aspects such as storytelling, creativity, commercialization, or interaction with audiences are important areas of journalism innovation. If innovations emerge only through the reaction to the threats from the instability of the news market, technological disruption, and the competitive commercial environment, the change could be slow and erratic. However, when management takes the lead, innovations increase in number and quality. Incorporating new practices and experimenting with different ideas is essential for innovation to flourish in media companies (García-Avilés et al., 2019).

We argue for a holistic approach to research in this field by considering many aspects that influence journalism innovation processes, being aware of the conflicting tensions that emerge.