This paper discusses the implications of James D. Thompson's generalized model of the organization model for organizational- and institutional-level analysis of the newspaper. The paper focuses on the following points of consideration and how they apply to newspapers: (1) organizations are open systems operating under norms of rationality; (2) the role of rationality and certainty as efforts to seal off the organization's technical core; and (3) access to resources and the flow of these resources through the organizational system. The paper argues that the newspaper industry is increasingly inclined to pursue rational norms and that structural adjustment within the newspaper to facilitate coordination among interdependent parts is inevitable. The paper proposes that this model can also serve as a source of insight and theoretical perspective for studies focusing on occupational groups and individuals in the newspaper organization, or even on the news product itself. Forty-eight references are attached. (KEH)