Depicting news graphically is considered an apt way to deal with challenges of modern journalism: to disclose big data, and present news attractively, visually, and fast to grasp. This study delves into reported obstacles and challenges for the production of news visualizations. It focuses on the question: what are the decisive factors that make news visualizations ‘work’ for the different people involved: journalists, designers and the public? To answer the research question, a threefold approach was taken: a review of both pertinent professional literature and academic studies on the production process of infographics; in-depth interviews with data journalists on their most extensive productions; and case studies around the production of three Dutch media visualizations. Results show that the quality and the use of visualization for news stories not only depends on the availability and the skills of designers and data journalists, but even more so on the willingness of the editors-in-chief to initiate experiments with new concepts and tools and to opt for new ways of news gathering and dissemination.