ORIGINAL PAPER When Codes Collide: Journalists Push Back Digital Desecration Marı ´a Luengo Received: 7 November 2014 / Accepted: 16 January 2015 / Published online: 30 January 2015 Ó Fudan University 2015 Abstract In an examination of the contemporary transformation of journalism at a granular level, this article exposes the process at work in the cultural construction of crisis and struggles for institutional experimentation in the New Orleans based The Times-Picayune. Layoffs and a digital-first strategy in 2012 triggered public outcry that strongly polluted the changes as anti-democratic. A narrative analysis of articles published in a variety of media and in-depth interviews with journalists and editors showed that events were related to broad and systemic cultural values, a core cultural structure inherent in every journalistic institution—including The Times- Picayune. In their narrative dimension, journalistic stories took the form of a moral texture that, in turn, fostered civil interpretations and reactions. The available narratives of the changes were—and still are—filtered, selected, and outlined from those core values. Keywords Journalism Á United States Á Crisis in journalism Á The Times-Picayune Á Civil values Á Cultural sociology 1 Introduction In May 2012, Advance Publications, the Newhouse family publisher of the New Orleans based The Times-Picayune, announced a drastic contraction of the newspaper’s print edition and the extraordinary expansion of its Web site, which was to become a platform for 24-h online news. Controversial staff cuts followed the announcement. Yet another American newspaper faced severe reductions in staff and the looming prospect that the merger of print and digital operations would M. Luengo (&) Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Carlos III University of Madrid, Edif. Ortega y Gasset. Calle Madrid, 133, 28903 Getafe, Madrid, Spain e-mail: maria.luengo@uc3m.es 123 Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. (2015) 8(1):33–48 DOI 10.1007/s40647-015-0062-2