Transforming the news: the impact of leadership and organizational fctors on the adoption and use of interactive elements on newspaper web sites

This study examined the influence of transformational leadership behavior and organizational factors on the adoption and use of interactive elements on newspaper Web sites. An online survey was administered to 99 online and managing editors at newspapers across the United States, measuring their perceptions of their leadership, the innovativeness of their newsrooms, and other areas related to the newspaper Web sites. Based on the responses to the survey, a content analysis of participating newspaper Web sites was conducted to compare the actual adoption and use interactive tools with the feedback from the editors. The findings revealed that transformational leadership was not a significant predictor of the level of interactivity on the Web sites. Instead, newspaper circulation predicted the amount of interactive content, which is consistent with previous research. Additionally, the editors reported a low level of innovativeness within their newsrooms. Innovativeness is a moderator of transformational leadership, so this low level can be used to explain the lack of transformational leadership in the newsroom. Finally, ownership status was not a significant predictor of the amount of interactivity on the Web sites. They may be producing different types of interactive elements, but they don’t necessarily produce different amounts. Based on these results, it was concluded that transformational leadership could and should used more by editors in an effort to improve their online products.