Stringing for semi-competing newspapers

[Some Guy]

sending the same story seems ethically wrong

Only because it is wrong.

I mean, it depends. For instance, let's say the game you are covering is a night game, and you will be writing on top of deadline. You don't have time to write two different stories.

I would tell Paper X up front, "Look, I'm already doing this for Paper Y. I'm not going to be able to write a separate for you. But if you're interested in the story anyway, I'll send it to you."

Then, the ball's in their court.

This happened numerous times at a paper I used to work at. There just weren't a whole lot of reliable stringers in the area, and if the choice was to run an identical story that is in a semi-competing paper or nothing, we'd choose the former everytime. It's like running wire copy, on a smaller scale.

 

[Stitch]

If there is nothing in a freelance agreement that states they get exclusivity, it's not ethically wrong to file the same story for different papers.

If a newspaper wants exclusivity, put it in the contract. It's none of their business otherwise.