The rebuilding of proximity. Land, web, and spatiality of local journalism

Local journalism is a privileged vantage point for observing the tension between territory and web in defining collective spatiality. While in past a "concentric" proximity model prevailed, digital transformation disrupts it, initiating an ongoing differentiated reorganization. This contribution aims to integrate the international debate about the topic, expanding the analysis to Southern Europe, in particular, the Italian region of Puglia. What are the specific characteristics of post-digital proximity in this context? We chose to seek answers to these research question in the discourse of industry professionals, able to report attitudes, ideological patterns, and habits that emerged in newsrooms in response to the stimuli of change. The discussion of the evidence from textual data shows how the imperative of rebuilding hybrid proximity is prompting local journalism in Puglia to abandon particularly rigid rituals to fulfil its civic assignment outside the imitation of national models, beyond the re-proposal of sector-specific languages, and even beyond the organizational space of newsrooms.