Exclusivity and my own moral code

Being a freelance journalist is hard, harder than being on a payroll. But it also has immeasurable benefits. The obvious ones are too obvious to need stating. Less obvious is the overview it affords. From your perch, you have a panoramic view, or at least a small window into the plans and predilections of every outlet you write for. This is useful, and also salutary.

While I don’t expect any of my editors to divulge anything more about their coverage plans than the minimum I need to know, sometimes, by coincidence, I’m asked to write about the same subject by two different publications. My own moral code means I’ll always turn down the second ask, because who wants to read (or publish) me writing something twice? But some PRs seem to operate by a different code. Recently, I found out quite by accident that a subject I’d written about for one newspaper had also been offered “exclusively” to another. When they saw my piece, the second publication pulled their coverage.

I understand why PRs need to maximise publicity for their clients, but I don’t understand why they will jeopardise their relationship with an editor to do so. How can trust be rebuilt afterwards? Since most PRs have more than one client, what happens when they want the aggrieved editor to cover one of their others? I’d be interested to hear a PR’s POV. If there’s anything editors – or freelancers – could do differently to lessen this happening, let me know.