Drawing on 2 months of intensive research in a network-affiliate newsroom, this paper describes how the researcher coped with studying newswork by qualitative and quantitative methods within a naturalistic paradigm and addresses methodological issues facing the naturalistic researcher. The paper discusses the following five methodological issues: (1) entree; (2) the role of the researcher; (3) data collection; (4) reliability assessment; and (5) incorporating the unexpected. The paper concludes that although the degree of certainty was not quite the same with the naturalistic approach as with purely quantitative measures, the naturalistic approach brought a greater depth of understanding than prestructured positivistic research typically would have developed. (RS)