The problem with "repurposing"

How much honesty do I owe my readers?

 

I have a wicked head cold. Mostly, the symptoms are a persistent hacking cough, running nose and tiredness. The last of these likely results from waking myself up every hour or so with that hacking cough. I’ve been to the doctor, I am taking medication, drinking lots of fluids and taking a copious amount of naps.

It is a bit difficult to concentrate, but truth be told, I had the head cold when I wrote last week’s column and no one, near as I can tell, found it any worse for the wear. But I’m more exhausted this week and still have a bit of prep work to do for a couple of courses I agreed to start teaching a week ago.

 

My best friend called and suggested I “repurpose” an old column. Since I’ve been writing The Right Thing column since 1998, he’s convinced no one will be the wiser. He uses words like “repurpose,” he says because he’s a former Hollywood writer and regularly repurposed stuff.

The only other time someone suggested I use an old column rather than write a new one was after my father died during COVID. My editor at the time was sympathetic to how challenging a time it was and offered me the chance to re-run an old column.

 

In neither case, did I seize the opportunity. Given that I’m now writing the 1,200th Right Thing column, there’s certainly enough material to draw upon. It’s also quite likely that there’s been some overlap in the types of topics I’ve written about over the years, although those have been inadvertent. I will admit, however, that there are times I sit down to write a column and have to search through the old columns to make sure I haven’t written the same column before. Forty-seven years is a long time and, particularly when I have a head cold, it’s highly likely I don’t remember everything I’ve written.

 

But I look at it this way: It would be misleading to present an old column as a new one to my readers. Some readers might not care, but I do. So I soldier on and write about the importance of being honest with my readers.

There might be a time when I decide to consider repurposing an old column. I don’t anticipate doing so, but if I do, the right thing would be to let readers know that the column is one that ran before. That would be the honest approach. If I do give it a try, I may find out that an occasional greatest hit from the archives is something readers would appreciate. Few of you, after all, have been with me since 1998 when I started, something about which I was made painfully aware when four graduate students told me that weren’t yet born then.

My promise to you is to be honest and as transparent as possible.

 

But now I have an appointment with a bowl of homemade chicken soup made by my wife. Unlike those grad students, she has read every column I’ve written since 1998. Those are only two of the many reasons that she remains the woman I’d eat bees for.

 

Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.

Do you have ethical questions that you need to have answered? Send them to jeffreyseglin@gmail.com.

Follow him on Twitter @jseglin.

(c) 2026 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.