Applying social theory of discourse and collecting the textual statements of the journalism practitioners, this article examines the discursive formation and the practice of the Chinese journalism practitioners when they face digital challenges. The basic fnding is: the practitioners turned to market discourse and adopted commercialism as the dominating frame to defne the circumstance they face. Accompanied with this, the “discursive formation” of professionalism which emerged during the 1990th with the early period of market reform of media is leaving the feld. This “discursive formation” also differs from that of its western counterparts, where the crisis discourse is described at plural dimension rather than a single commercial dimension. This “discursive formation” of commercialism not only exists within the commerce-oriented social practices, but also legitimates the latter thus generating a series of positions, social relations and social identities that are related with it, whereas marginalizing positions, social relations and social identities that are related with non-commercial value (such as publicity). Structural changes occur within discursive changes.