for the majority of "regular" people, hearing that SIAI published journal articles does that better than hearing that they published Harry Potter fanfiction

The majority of "regular" people don't know what journals are; apart from the Wall Street Journal and the New England Journal of Medicine, they mostly haven't heard of any. If asked about journal articles, many would say, "you mean like a blog?" (if younger) or think you were talking about a diary or a newspaper (if older).

They have, however, heard of Harry Potter. ;-)