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I am a rising 2L, published an article in an outside journal last year and hope to publish within my law school's journal this year. My fall 1L grades were absolutely horrible, my spring 1L grades seem to be far superior. I have been offered a monthly column in a policy related website's blog section. It's a local, albeit substantial, policy nonprofit with a decent intellectual oriented readership, however I can run fairly in-depth articles related to my legal/policy interest.

I am also hoping to branch off to a smaller newspaper in a market across the country I am strongly considering practicing in. I hope this would help serve as another tie to the community as I currently attend a T20 to mid T30 across the country. Is it better to pursue this relationship, hold my articles for the small town paper or continue to try and publish my articles in more academic oriented journals?

Be careful about holding articles. As good as yours might be, you'll eventually come up with better ones. In the meantime, it sounds like it could actually pay decently (and for doing something you're really interested in), and it could look great on a resume, regardless of what you do when you get out.