As a regular contributor for Mobile Philippines, I sometimes republish stuff that I wrote in this blog. The main disadvantage of the print medium is that though page planning and editorial content are done one or two issues in advance (so if it is late January now, we are working on February and March) it still takes a while for an issue to be laid out, printed and circulated to the many stands in the country.
As a writer, publishing your work online is a good thing for you and your publisher, but you also need to take into account certain exclusivities that you owe the magazine you write for.
Although there are no policies engraved in stone with several publications in the Philippines, it would be fair to try and republish only a part of your article – a preview or teaser if you may, that will whet readers’ appetites to buy the magazine. These columns / reviews usually come with a “for a more detailed review, do check out the latest issue of *insert magazine title here* coming out next week.
For articles that you want to republish that are considered archived in print, you may actually publish the whole piece because someone reading it on your site may actually decide to buy the magazine for that article you have written. And besides, the exclusivity period is over since the article has lost its scoop. The safest rule to follow would be to always cite the main source of that article – similar to blogging, except that the source was yourself however written originally for another publication.
2 replies on “How soon should you publish your article in an online medium?”
When I started working for one of the first private local radio stations in Germany my boss was a middle aged news maker of the “typical” kind we youngsters expected to find in that position. His hair, slightly to long, started turning into grey already, he had a worn out jacket, wore bluejeans with coffee stains and white trainers on his feet. His tie was out of fashion and he used a really annoying aftershave. But he was a 100% professional in his job. One, you would consider from the “old school” of journalism. And he once said something I never forgot:
“There is nothing special about finding a story to write about. And there is nothing special about publishing it.
You might say: ‘Yes, but when is the right time to publish my story? Isn’t that what makes a good journalist? To know, when to publish it?’
But I say: ‘A good journalist knows when not to.’
wow thats a terrific insight martin. although i guess i did not stress that i was referring more to commercial publishing items (i.e. magazines), not newsworthy stuff. nonetheless, what you mentioned is something worth keeping to heart 🙂