Katja Lahenius

Managing a virtual team of newspaper journalists: a case study

This paper deals with managing of the joint editorial office of three regional newspapers in Finland. Competition with new media has forced newspaper editorial offices to reorganize their activities to get new competitive assets to survive. Mergers and coalitions of media houses have become common in newspaper industry in Europe. For newspaper editorials, networking with other newspaper editorials is one way to meet challenges of media markets. This study was conducted in a joint editorial office that produces material for three newspapers. Results show that, in editorial work, a virtual team is a beneficial way of co‐operation. Journalists are used to work autonomously and independently, and therefore they adjusted to work in a virtual team, whose members worked de‐located. They found face‐to‐face meetings important, because in that way they could identify themselves as members of a specific team and bond relationship with other members.