Being ‘first’ to publish news in the media industry doesn’t necessarily make you the best. This is because there are still a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration in order to ensure the success of the news story shared with your audience.

It’s therefore vital to remember that, when you’re publishing breaking news to your readership, what they are reading needs to be 100% accurate. If it’s not, you risk losing their trust and your views taking a downwards dip.

Here’s why being first to break the news might not be the way to go:

1. Your facts might be wrong

Being the first to publish a hard-hitting story might get you more clicks but if the facts contained within the article are incorrect, you’ll be letting your readers down. Not only that, but it makes your publication seem untrustworthy and your writers and reporters look unreliable— can you say fake news?

That’s why it’s important to allow yourself an adequate amount of time to do research before publishing to ensure that your facts are indeed correct — however, be sure not to wait too long as you still want the story to be topical by the time you send it out. Waiting a short amount of time to publish while gathering all your research makes the article you are publishing of a higher quality, meaning that your readers will continue to trust you to deliver real, reliable news.
It’s better to be second and have all of the facts right the first time than it is to be first and publish fake news.

2. The story could do more harm than good

Wanting to be first to publish a story can lead to disastrous consequences that you did not anticipate. For example, if you were to publish a story about a sensitive topic and have not included all of the necessary details, you risk damaging your reputation immensely.

Rather ensure that you have done your research and got approval from the correct people before going ahead and publishing the story. Remember, the Internet never forgets about what journalists or people have said and done. If you publish a story that doesn’t follow ethical journalist guidelines, it could be online forever, leaving a huge dent in your reputation as well as the company you work for.

3. You’ll get backlash from readers

Readers put their faith and trust in your platform, so it’s best that you keep up your end of the deal by providing them with high-quality, factual content. As mentioned before, the Internet can be a cruel place, and if you publish something that your readers are not happy with, you can receive some pretty hard backlash.

Loyal readers are not a guaranteed thing, as they can easily go find another place to get their news from. That’s why, as a writer and publisher, your ultimate goal should be to keep your readers happy. There should, therefore, be a balance between reporting news fast while simultaneously ticking all the boxes of quality content in order to avoid any backlash.

This means that you need to:
  • Doing a complete fact check. This can be done by Googling and phoning reputable sources such as companies.
  • Ensuring that you have all the necessary information from relevant parties. You can do this by contacting the relevant parties and their friends and family.
  • Removing any terminology that embellishes the story or makes it appear ‘exaggerated’. Taking a look at the adjectives contained within the content is a good way to do so. For example, was the event truly ground-breaking? Did that person really create the best strategy on earth?
Do you agree that it’s sometimes better to be second best when it comes to publishing breaking news? Let us know in the comments section below.

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It’s high time that content creators and writers take full responsibility for the content that they put out there. Check out these Three ways to avoid creating fake news to learn how to do just that.
*Image courtesy of Vecteezy