This article applies institutional analysis on the “transformation” of journalism in China. With the case The Paper, a renowned and emerging online media outlet, the author argues a) as an idea, “transformation” unfolds on the level of policies and programs without philosophies; b) as a discourse, coordination proliferates “in-and-out” with peers, and communication is dominated by journalists with the public. “Transformation” shows pragmatic views of journalists on what to do, as well as normative principle of what one ought to do. Therefore, as a keyword to understand changes in journalism, “transformation” is mainly deemed as an extension to China market-oriented media reform since 1990s. Based on this, a digital and networked communication space is only regarded by journalists as momentum to continue stimulating journalistic activities back to news instead of propaganda, rather than reconstructing power relations in journalistic feld. This conclusion makes prerequisites to further exploration on the process and consequence of changes in journalism in China.