Audience Preference and Editorial Judgment: A Study of Time-Lagged Influence in Online News

The rise of sophisticated tools for tracking audiences online has begun to change the way media producers think about media audiences. This study examines this phenomenon in journalism. Research suggests that journalists, after long resisting or ignoring audience preferences, are becoming increasingly aware of user desires, manifest via metrics. However, research also finds a gap in the news preferences of journalists and audiences. This study asks: who influences whom more in this disparity? Through longitudinal secondary data analysis of three U.S. online newspapers, and using structural equation modeling, this study finds (1) audience preferences affect subsequent editorial placement of news stories, (2) such influence intensifies during the course of the day, (3) editorial judgment does not influence subsequent audience preference for news stories, and (4) audience preferences affect editorial judgments more than the other way around. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.