Cannot understand the structure of a sentence.
The kind of journalism that insists on clinging to time-honored forms of reportage is languishing insofar as it fails to exploit social media. At the same time, were a traditional news service, by whole-heartedly embracing the Internet, to disregard the very tools that allowed for its ascendancy in the first place, it would likely suffer a similar fate.
What kind of clause is the sentence ' were a traditional news service' ?

Question

Cannot understand the structure of a sentence.
The kind of journalism that insists on clinging to time-honored forms of reportage is languishing insofar as it fails to exploit social media. At the same time, were a traditional news service, by whole-heartedly embracing the Internet, to disregard the very tools that allowed for its ascendancy in the first place, it would likely suffer a similar fate. 
What kind of clause is the sentence ' were a traditional news service' ?

Answer

"Were a traditional news service [...] to disregard" basically means "if a traditional news service disregarded [...]" but stressing the fact that it is (or ought to be) pretty unlikely, or purely hypothetical. Or they just want their sentence to sound more important than it really is.

I suppose the term may be subjunctive mood conditional. Hopefully somebody can give you a more targeted answer there.

But this particular pattern with the inverted verb is rather formal sounding. For example:
1) "If I were you, I wouldn't disregard it." 
2) "Were I you, I wouldn't disregard it."

Notice how the second phrase doesn't even have "if" in it. You can find similar inversions with "should", "would", and "had" as well.

Answer

I don't know the precise designation for the type of clause, but this is the subjunctive being used as conditional. Similar examples:  "Were he to ask for my help, I would gladly give it."  "Were it to rain all day, we would have to move the party indoors."  "If I were you, I would start studying now."

Verpassen Sie nicht die Gelegenheit, bequem von zu Hause aus eine Sprache zu lernen. Stöbern Sie in unserer Auswahl an erfahrenen Sprachlehrern und melden Sie sich jetzt zu Ihrer ersten Unterrichtsstunde an!