The concept of sustainable journalism can be used to analyse many different aspects of environment and society, while the downside is that it becomes too much of a floating signifier, in need of some terminological precision. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to theoretically elaborate sustainable journalism as a particular means of framing society, with a clear connection to sustainability literature. We argue that such frames could be operationalised based on a few core principles of sustainable development thinking, found in texts such as Brundtland’s report, Our Common Future: Report of the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development, for the United Nations. Three prominent frames of sustainable journalism – namely the three-pillar, time reflexive, and cross-spatial frames – are empirically exemplified through their hybrid combination of generic and issue-specific aspects of sustainability. By means of framing theory, media theory, and journalism studies, our intention is to present them as tools for conducting empirical analyses of the ways media deploy a sustainability outlook in their reporting.