This study analyzes the effects of precarity on thinking about professionalism and professional identity among journalists, based on a re-analysis of three different datasets of semi-structured in-depth interviews (gathered in 2008-09, 2010-12 and 2017, respectively) with journalists (n = 63, 55 and 11, respectively) across 14 European countries. The study shows that journalists in this cross-national sample are “primed” for precarity; i.e. they largely accept precarity as natural part of journalism because precarity is in line with key professional norms such as norms of entrepreneurship and meritocracy.