Worth a read – although a bit of a pipe dream with you know who and you know who 2..
http://kevin.lexblog.com/2015/08/04/time-to-say-goodbye-to-paywalls-in-legal-publishing/
Media Life’s Toni Fitzgerald writes that it’s time to say goodbye to paywalls in the newspaper business.
Though 73% of papers have digital paywalls in an effort to capture revenue lost by declining subscriptions and ad sales, it’s becoming clear that paywalls will not be enough.
A recent Hubspot study found that “as free content continues to proliferate on the web, many publishers are finding it harder and harder to charge for their publications.” The study, per Fitzgerald, found 20 percent of publishers believe fewer publications will charge for content in the coming six months.
The Toronto Star and the Sun in the UK are among the major publishers who have already taken down their paywalls.
Gordon Borrell, chief executive officer at Borrell Associates, an ad tracking firm in Williamsburg, Virginia told Fitzgerald that the print business model, where you get 25 percent of your revenue from subscriptions and 75 percent from advertising, doesn’t work online. You need huge audiences to generate sufficient ad revenue, and paywalls work against that.
What can we expect in the the legal arena? Historically we’ve had one major player, that being ALM.
ALM publishes among other publications The American Lawyer, the New York Law Journal, Corporate Counsel, The National Law Journal, The Legal Intelligencer, Legal Times, and Law Technology News. When I access most ALM publications in my news aggregator I am met with a paywall that tells me I have reached my “article limit.”
Neither Above The Law nor newcomer, Bloomberg Big Law have a paywall. Of course both of these publications only exist online. They need not cover for historical susbcription and ad revenue.
Nevertheless, Above The Law’s traffic is likely greater than ALM’s Law.com traffic. The contributor network from guests publishing pieces to Bloomberg and Above The Law appears to be greater than contributions to ALM’s online publications.
Eduardo Leite, Global Chairman of Baker & McKenzie, recently penned a piece for Bloomberg Law on the importance of social media. Would he have done the same for ALM where the piece would be behind a paywall with lower readership and no social sharing?
ALM’s contributor network, widely discussed a year plus ago, does not seem to be very popular among guest authors. I find contributing to Above The Law, something I do weekly, much more attractive. My posts are widely seen and shared.
