In recent years, design has become an increasingly important function in news organisations seeking to support their digital-first strategies and business models, gain a deeper understanding of what their audiences want, and what drives engagement and conversion. While the use of audience metrics is well-documented and studied in journalism research, news organisations’ design efforts—not only in the context of the appearance and functionality of products but as a set of processes and mindset directed at fostering a culture of audience-centred innovation—remain relatively under-explored. By operationalising Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, this research explores how The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The Irish Times have incorporated humancentred design in their products, services, and audience research and the implications for journalism. It also explores how this audience-oriented culture affects journalistic professional boundaries and how journalists perceive the changing structural dynamics in the newsroom. Following a multiple case study design, with in-depth expert interviews as the primary data collection method, this research does not aim to extract broad inferences but to analyse the processes and effects of the same phenomenon across different newspapers and countries. Field theory allows for a study of journalism that focuses both on its broader institutional conditions and the importance of relationships between its agents and new entrants. This research shows that while design practices facilitate the development of several crossfunctional projects, ranging from UX and UI applications to audience research and innovation efforts related to audience engagement and trust, they are sometimes obstructed by outside pressures and organisational limitations and are met with resistance in the newsroom. At the same time, while journalists recognise the audience-centric culture, it is viewed as a challenge to long-standing norms and the prevailing journalistic doxa, confirming Bourdieu’s view of journalism as a site of struggle and competing logics.