Using Everett M.Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory, this paper analyzes how an
innovation, such as data journalism, which comes out as a result of digital disruption is being
adopted in the newsroom of a national media in Indonesia, KOMPAS. The presence of digital
disruption which leads to the mushrooming of contents provided by non journalists creates
challenges for journalists. Data journalism with its core of accuracy and fact-based information
comes as a solution for providing quality and solutions based journalism as believed by
KOMPAS. The case study of KOMPAS involves interviewing its five media practitioners to
find out three elements of diffusion innovation theory, such as the characteristics of innovation,
decisions-making process, and category of adopter, applied at KOMPAS to examine the
factors behind the process of adoption of data journalism in its newsroom. This research shows
that the adoption of innovation (data journalism) in a mainstream media like KOMPAS is
heavily influenced by the decision to adopt the innovation by a powerful individual such as
editor-in-chief, the alignment of the innovation with the company’s value and needs, the
familiarity of its employee with the new method of journalism and a measured output.