I never understand how this happens. The one reporter sees the other article and thinks "hey, I just have to write the exact same story, but in different words!" Then they probably go home to their wives and complain about the massive downsizing in their industry.

More like, "Oh, wow, they got a lot of attention from their market! If I write the same thing using different words, I can get lots of attention in my market!"

It works.

Isn't everyone's market everyone now?

depends on who's "everyone"

Sort of like cross posting from reddit to digg / news.yc only more time consuming?

I don't understand why we're apparently only ever allowed to have one article on any given subject. Two publications with different target audiences can cover the same thing without plagiarizing each other, after all.

And oddly, this repeat of it appears in the future: the byline says it was published on May 1, 2010.

Nah, I bet it refers to the May issue of the magazine. My understanding is that the cover date on magazines actually refers to when supermarkets and bookstores are supposed to remove them from the shelves.

Of course, this results in all sorts of weirdness, like this article being from the 'mysterious future.'