Commercial News as Cultural Form

Advertising-supported journalism, conventionally referred to as "commercial news," is in decline. Efforts to make sense of this fact have been hampered by the narrow assumption that commercial news is merely a business model. It is that, but it is also a distinctive cultural form of news, one that consists of purposes, definitions of news, modes of address, and practices of newsgathering that are specific to the form. Drawing on a review of the secondary literature as well as an analysis of news content from four commercially oriented news outlets, it is shown that this form of news has existed since the 1700s, and that many of the elements that make up the form have persisted ever since. Approaching commercial news in this way does not provide easy answers to questions raised by its decline. However, it does help scholars ask better questions about this remarkable transition in news production.