This study examines how institutional change in the news industry, in particular empowerment and inclusion of the audience, affects journalists. How does minding the audience, interacting with readers or viewers and engaging with them at various stages of the news production process, make journalists feel about their jobs, themselves, their workplace and their audience? How might this outcome affect journalistic output? Answering these questions is a contribution to the discourse about the future of journalism practice in a hostile economic environment. Through in-depth interviews with 131 journalists and newsroom managers in four newsrooms, with 22 audience engagement editors in 20 newsrooms and with 15 consultants and audience analytics providers, as well as through observation in three newsrooms, I offer empirical data exploring the increasingly normalized practice of audience engagement in traditional newsrooms that are trying to find sustainable business models in a news industry marked by increasing corporate ownership and austerity measures. interacting with audience members on social media platforms to in-person events.

I find that journalists, tasked by their editors and newsroom management to engage with the audience on social media platforms, often view audience engagement as an exercise solely meant to generate revenue. Poorly articulated and communicated strategies leave many journalists feeling cynical and burdened with labor that they consider to be part of a marketing or promotions department’s responsibility. Women journalists in particular experience the demands of audience engagement as requiring literally dangerous exposure of their private lives to a frequently hostile public. This dynamic is compounded by journalists’ awareness of the precarity of their position, a sentiment that easily slips into resentment toward newsroom management and owners.

For all stakeholders involved – journalists, industry consultants, newsrooms and scholars – I recommend seeking clearer definitions of all agents in the journalistic field. Implementing audience engagement strategies without agreement about the definition of “audience” and “engagement,” or about the purpose and desired end of engagement, is counter-productive. Without a better understanding of what the audience means to journalists, editors, newsroom managers, publishers and owners, the search for new business models will not advance.