Reich, Z., Price, L.T., Coddington, M. et al. (13 more authors) (2026) Comparing news beat structures across 13 countries: From geographic to topical and sub-specialised division of labour. Journalism Studies. ISSN: 1461-670X
Abstract
Almost 200 years after their inception, news beats became a dominant factor that shapes newsrooms. This study explores the beat mix of leading quality dailies in 13 countries. Findings are based on executive interviews triangulated with other data sources. They indicate a shift from geographic to thematic division of labour and the rising trend of beat sub-specialisation. Newsroom size matters but not linearly: larger newsrooms are not larger across the board. Despite the “interpretive turn”, the iconic figure of the newsroom is still the news reporter, with commentators having a minor share. The studied newsrooms are still based on full timers, with restricted reliance on freelancers and part-timers, mainly in softer news. Gender differences have not disappeared; however, they are smaller and nuanced. These findings suggest that beat systems are responsive to ontological, cultural and environmental changes, while preserving their basic logic of newsmaking at least regarding their core staffs.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2026 The Authors. Except as otherwise noted, this author-accepted version of a journal article published in Journalism Studies is made available via the University of Sheffield Research Publications and Copyright Policy under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ © 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Beat system; specialisation; newsroom structure; news making; international comparison; news beats |
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| Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
| Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Information, Journalism and Communication |
| Date Deposited: | 05 Mar 2026 17:31 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Mar 2026 17:31 |
| Status: | Published online |
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis Group |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Identification Number: | 10.1080/1461670X.2026.2631505 |
| Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:238643 |
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Filename: Accepted manuscript for Mypubs.pdf
Licence: CC-BY 4.0
Filename: Reich et al 2026. Comparing News Beat Structures across 13 Countries.JS.pdf
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0
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