December has illustrated that although there might not be the free flowing $’s in the legal publishing market that there were a few years ago .. changes in the market aren’t slowing down. If anything December has been somewhat of a hyperdrive month
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Editorial
At the start of 2010 most people on both sides of the fence in the legal information industry knew that the past couple of years had been hard on the sector
The financial meltdown, the ever advancing technological changes in the publishing industry, online and off; and a certain arrogance from some parts of the legal publishing fraternity ( there?s a reason we say fraternity) which have ?combined to make what seemed like a money printing exercise in 2007 something a little more fragile.
By the end of 2010 the word ??fragile? seems like ?an understatement as news of changes in the industry over the last month testify.
Simple headlines can sometimes make the obvious even clearer
Lexis Nexis Sell German Division
Public.Resource.org and Fastcase Announce Public Caselaw Feed
Law Professors Win $5 Million Defamation Verdict Against West Publishing ????
Bloomberg LP Challenges LexisNexis, Westlaw
Indlii Launched
UK Lord Chief Justice Opens The Way For Court Reporting Via Twitter
And these are headlines we?ve only pulled from the December issues of the newsletter
And as for 2011 it?s not looking good for the establishment when the likes of Palfrey and Rodrigues say?
Palfrey Proposes a New Digital Legal Information Environment for the Future
In a November lecture marking his appointment as the Henry N. Ess III Professor at Harvard Law School, Professor John G. Palfrey ?01 called for a new legal information system “grounded in a set of open data.”
Rodrigues Muses In SLAW Article: Lexis Kluwer Merger In 2011
By the end of 2011 the giant money making operation that was the Lexis Nexis legal publishing divisions may no longer exist as the company moves further and further into law firm process technology and product.
TR Westlaw?s huge investment ?Westlaw Next? will keep that company?s legal publishing division alive and prospering reasonably well although they will have to be constatntly ?looking over their shoulder at Bloomberg; the increasingly competitive and inventive Kluwer Law and let?s not forget ?the Lii ?group who have just celebrated a decade of information provision in Australia and a launch of India?s Lii group just this last month.
Never mind the likes of Justis in the UK who are being ?very clever at choosing the markets and information sources they wish to digitize and distribute
As always a big thank you for supporting and subscribing to Law Librarians in 2010 .
We wish all our readers a great Christmas , Hanukah New Year etc.
LLN does not publish in January and will be back in your inbox on Friday February 4 2011
Best Wishes
Sean Hocking
Law Librarians News
