My mentor Edwin Diamond told me, “Any story worth reporting is worth selling twice… or more.” He called that “slicing the baloney.” Many was the time in my journalism career when I sold a story (lightly rewritten) to two or three publications.

The best example was when I, as a reporter in the business department,  appointed myself the banking reporter of the Oregon Journal (the same way I appointed myself the wine reporter).

While working in the Bank of America public information department, I had gotten to know Geoff Brouillette, the San Francisco bureau chief of the American Banker daily newspaper. When I moved to the Journal, he would pass me story ideas. I would report them, run them in the Journal and then dispatch the result to him, as a side gig. A half century later, I don’t recall how I sent the stories (no fax or Internet in 1978), but he got the stories and I got paid.

Consider this a tip for any freelance writer: sell it twice.

(Thank you Brendan Leonard of Semi-Rad for reminding me of this with update 21 for Patreon supporters)