Somebody posted a question on the Freelance Success board a little while ago. If you interview a subject for a piece for Magazine A, and then find that you have leftover material from the interview that could be used for an article in Magazine B, what is the protocol when it comes to checking with the subject in question? Arizona health writer Kathy Summers had some advice that I thought was helpful that she agreed to let me reprint:

I just did this for a national fitness magazine. I was in a crunch. My editor asked for an additional five health quiz items on short deadline. I had all these unused quotes from a nutritionist a year ago for another publication. I sent the expert a quick email saying this is the quote I want to use for this publication. She has a new book out, which I mentioned in the attribution. She was happy to confirm the quote--to me and to the fact checker.

But if what I needed to use was longer or more in-depth, I'd have picked up the phone for a review and update.

I also asked her another question about this: "Do you feel freelancers need to check with editors at either the new or old publication about reusing interviews or it shouldn't even matter if you're not using the same quotes?"

Her response:

I don't bother editors on either end. I think it would annoy them. If I have any doubts, I just go get fresh quotes. I also try not to use the same experts on the exact same topic in the same year for competing magazines. I write about health almost exclusively and have a great Rolodex of top experts. I might interview them for a certain article and check in with them on another topic for another article during the same phone call. That's just good business. Writers might want to check their contracts, though. Some of the new contracts grab rights to interview transcripts, although I haven't signed one of those myself.