Bullying has journalists convinced to drop leader (8)
I believe the answer is:
pressure
'bullying' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'journalists convinced to drop leader' is the wordplay.
'journalists' becomes 'press' (the press can mean the newspaper industry).
'convinced' becomes 'sure' (similar in meaning).
'to drop leader' means to remove the first letter (I've seen 'dropping leader' mean this).
'sure' with its first letter taken away is 'ure'.
'press'+'ure'='PRESSURE'
'has' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pressure that I've seen before include "A force that compels" , "Coercion, intimidation" , "Stressful urgency" , "tension" , "Force, stress, strain" .)