When it comes to offering an article for free to a publication, it is possible for you to maintain copyright. You own the copyright in the article. The publication owns the copyright in the completed version. Most magazines are registered with the Copyright Office as a single collective entity. So every month, for example, the July issue, the August issue and the September issue are copyrighted as a whole. In that situation, unless the individual authors of those articles have independently maintained their copyright, they’ve lost it potentially at that point. It is essentially a joint copyright in the completed monthly, or weekly, or whatever the publication is. But the author owns the right to take those same words in that same way and recast them into another piece or offer it 100% verbatim as a secondary, or second rights to another publication.

You can give away the article itself, without giving away the copyright. Many experts offer articles for precisely that purpose—for publicity, for credibility enhancement, for all sorts of reasons, business reasons, or personal reasons. You can give away the article without a fee and still maintain your copyright.

For even more details on maintaining copyright, how it works and how it can work for you, check out Legal Issues You Must Know When Writing Articles For Fee or For Free.