From my POV, when, as a reporter, you have information the public should know, you report it. You don’t wait until the print deadline out of some vain belief that only print can give your scoop the gravitas it deserves. You publish it where it will reach the public the quickest, which usually means digitally.

As this piece points out, Bob Woodword take publishing for the sake of ego (and financial gain) to a whole new level. The headline: A reporter who scoops his own paper.

It is a marriage of very modern convenience, an exchange of brands that has little to do with a traditional employer-employee relationship. At a time when newspapers are hurting for attention, a paper will take it where it can get it. “It is an accommodation that The Post has made, and they seem to be happy with the arrangement,” said Edward Wasserman, a professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University. “The important thing is everybody is going in with their eyes open, but the fact still remains that under the arrangement, supremely newsworthy information assembled by one of its senior editors is not going into the paper.”

When reporting scoops becomes a matter of financial gain or ego boost, how trustworthy is the information? And how is the public served? I’m just asking …