The aim of the bachelor’s thesis “Criteria of News Selection in Postimees: interviews with editors“ was to find out which news characteristics the editors of Postimees take into account the most and how the Internet has influenced the newspaper according to the editors. Seven interviews with the editors of Postimees were conducted. Throughout the thesis the answers of interviewees were compared to each other, to theoretical knowledge and to the findings of seminar paper “News values in Postimees in October 7, 2008“. The interviews revealed that the editors consider all seven news criteria equally important. According to the editors they take into account the influence the news has for its readers the most. In addition the presence of prominents and conflicts and proximity were mentioned. The breakthrough of Internet has changed the traditional newspaper. To the editors the main difference is that the function of newspapers is not anymore just to give up-dated information but to analyze and to give additional material. The editors do not consider this change to be negative. Instead they are certain that the quality of Postimees improves as the journalist have to do more in-depth investigation. In order to fulfill the expectations of all the readers Postimees tries to publish as wide variety of news as possible. According to the editors the paper has to move hand in hand with the rest of the world. That is why it is impossible to distinguish between hard and soft news as all the news can be both of them depending on the angel it is written. Also some editors consider writing news starting with a soft lead and then being able to move on to bigger issues to be part of journalist’s professionalism. In theory balancing between business venture and journalism for public interest is stated to be complicated. The editors of Postimees do not take it as a problem as they publish what people talk about and readers discuss about the issues they have read from the newspaper. Also they noted that there are some issues which are published even though the readers do not show a big interest in it.

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