Abstract Conventional wisdom suggests that competition in the modern digital environment pushes media outlets toward the early release of less accurate information. We show that this is not necessarily the case. Two opposing forces determine the resolution of the speed‐accuracy tradeoff: preemption and reputation. Although competition exacerbates preemption concerns, it provides additional information to the audience by allowing them to compare publication times. Hence, more competitive environments may be more conducive to reputation building, which may lead to better reporting. However, we show that the audience may be worse off due to the outlets' better initial information.