Getting It First

It's hammered into every aspiring reporter's head from the first day on the college paper or at J-school: There's nothing better than beating the pants off the competition.

And it's basically the reigning ethos in the news biz today, especially since the industry tends to attract highly competitive folks.

But is it time to rethink the scoop mentality?

The second-by-second approach you sometimes see played out on cable TV can clearly be counterproductive, when everyone shouts "the miners are alive!" without having the facts nailed down. But what about newspapers and magazines? In an age of real-time blogging, does it make sense for them to handle some stories with the utmost secrecy?

Consider this post from Business Week's Stephen Baker

"I've been leading a secret life on this blog. For months and months I worked on this math cover story. I was talking to mathematicians and people who use math, and it was dominating my thinking. It was in many ways the most interesting thing going on--and I couldn't blab about it in the blog."

(He also added this peek behind the curtain: In an attempt to be blog-like, "I wrote a first draft in first person. Some people liked it, some didn't, but I'm sure they all agreed that it didn't read like a traditional BW story. The top editors said, in effect, nice try. But they wanted the traditional approach: Less me, more clarity.")

That led to a long rant, at Buzz Machine world headquarters, by Jeff Jarvis :

"Is it better for Steve and Business Week to have held back their story from public view until it was packaged and polished and delivered in print, or to have sought out the best advice on it from an informed public by seeking collaboration via Steve's blog as the story was being formed? Which produces a better product and a better business?

"Of course, the magazine vets would say that they could not possibly let the world know about such a megastory because then the competitors would steal the scoop. How silly of me even to ask. But what competitors: US Weekly? And if Fortune came along and did its mondomath story, at least colleagues in the business would know it was a ratty thing to do, stealing from Steve's blog, indicating they didn't have ideas of their own.

"If publications shared what they were working on and if the practice succeeded in improving stories -- and, indeed, in drumming up excitement for them -- then they'd all end up doing this and all would fear being stolen from. Honor among hacks.

"The bigger question is whether there is value left in the scoop. As good as it is, will that math story really drive extra newsstand sales (no matter how much Steve tried to get them to sex it up)?