This study is concerned with the news values and working practices that inform the creation
of interactive infographics in UK online news. The author draws upon organisational theory in
journalism studies, and considers how conventional journalistic news values compare with best
practice as espoused in different literatures within this field. A series of open-ended, depth
interviews with visual news journalists from the UK national media were undertaken, along
with a short-term observation case study at a national online news publisher. Journalistic and
organisational norms are found to shape the selection, production, and treatment of interac-
tive graphics, and a degree of variation is found to exist amongst practitioners as to defini-
tions of quality in this field. Some news stories are considered to be better suited to rendering
in interactive form than others. The availability of _big data_ does not drive decision-making
in itself, but some numbers are considered more newsworthy than others. Budgetary constraint
drives practice and limits potential in this field. Risk aversion, embodied in various forms; from
the use of templates, to a perceived need to avoid audience complaint, is found to dampen
experimentation. Detailed audience research was found to inform the choice of methods used
in data visualisation at one national news producer. This warrants further investigation as to
how audiences engage with news interactives, and what the framing of news in certain
(preferred) data visualisation formats means in terms of how news is understood.