The Hazards of "Getting There First"

As I'm sure everyone knows, there's a big shake-up happening in the world of traditional journalism. Print newspapers are shrinking — both their staff and their printed size — sending many journalists to the highly competitive world of online publishing.

Online publishing is fairly competitive, because in many writers' minds — in order to get your article read, you need to be the first one to break the story and publish it online. In theory, the idea that you need to "get there first" sounds no