Another print publication bites the dust…..
February 24, 2016
ALM Media Properties, parent company of American Lawyer and publications, announced on Tuesday it will cease to publish the print edition of InsideCounsel magazine, and will revamp the digital edition, insidecounsel.com, to focus on smaller legal departments at emerging companies.
In its new form, InsideCounsel will become a digital reader, a daily newsletter and a website that offers insights on risk management and analyzes regulatory developments of interest to emerging companies. Until this week, it also had been a monthly publication targeting corporate counsel at companies of all sizes.
“The content change is really about engaging the entrepreneurial start-up community because their issues are different,” vice president and publisher Kenneth Gary told Big Law Business. “We’re going to be the only ones speaking to this audience on a day-to-day basis, and we’re really excited about that.”
Gary said InsideCounsel has some editorial staff, as well as freelancers and contributors and did not expect any layoffs. He declined to give an exact headcount.
ALM, which also publishes the American Lawyer, National Law Journal and other legal trade publications, acquired Inside Counsel in 2015 as part of its takeover of Summit Professional Networks, a deal that also included National Underwriter and Investment Advisor. Media reports at the time valued the deal at $40 million.
Some content from InsideCounsel’s digital versions will still appear in print, as special sections on start-ups and small legal departments in ALM’s monthly Corporate Counsel, which is geared toward Fortune 1000 companies.
ALM will continue to publish Corporate Counsel magazine both online and in a monthly print edition.
Subscribers to InsideCounsel will start receiving editions of Corporate Counsel beginning in April, ALM said. Subscribers may also request a refund for the remainder of their subscription by emailing the magazine before March 22.
The shift from print to digital is occurring elsewhere too: Rolling Stone and New York Magazine now generate the greatest portion of their newsstand sales digitally, according to the Pew Research Center’s most recent State of the News Media report from May.
The B2B media and information industry is relying increasingly on digital products and events to drive business, according to the 2015 Business Information Survey released this week by Connectiv, a division of digital and content industry association SIIA. It also predicted that print as a portion of total revenue will drop from 28 percent to 18 percent by 2020.
Mike Marchesano, managing director of Connectiv, says the shift from print to digital “will move into hyper-speed over the next few years.”
