Comments on Networks of blogs may be the future of legal publishing | Real Lawyers Have Blogs

FPILEGGI@FOXROTHSCHILD.COM (Francis Pileggi) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:21:35 -0800

Look forward to hearing more details about LexMonitor and how it compares with and/or supplements aggregators.
Best wishes for your continuing success at the cutting edge of blogs for lawyers.

kevin@lexblog.com (Kevin) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:58:48 -0800

Thanks Francis, it's lawyers such as you who are publishing quality blogs who we're looking to highlight with the LexMonitor.

kadams@adamsdrafting.com (Ken Adams) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:22:18 -0800

I assume that LexMonitor would be like Blawg Review done daily rather than weekly, and with a consistent editorial voice. It seems like a useful idea. One question I'd have is whether it would give any preference to LexBlog clients.

As for a network of legal blogs, I'm sure you'd do a better job than at least one network I'm thinking of. But I'm uncertain of the benefits. As a reader, I might not find it much help, as I'm readily able to sniff out on my own those few blogs that cover topics I'm interested in. Wearing my blogger hat, I can see that participating in such a network would bring me more readers. But because they wouldn't have sought me out, I'm not sure how long they'd stick around. And the extra eyeballs might not be worth the ads and a certain loss of independence.

kevin@lexblog.com (Kevin) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:19:09 -0800

LexMonitor will be more than Blawg Review Ken given that that it will be running on a platform that's taken more than a half a year to develop. It's also going to be driven by full time editorial staff and allow for a more meaningful way to consume law blog content. Who's to say blog content will not be the most meaningful legal scholarship in 4 or 5 years. Times are a changing.

As to preference for LexBlog clients, I've given that a lot of thought. My first thought was to use LM to highlight our clients' blogging and as a medium to obtain more clients. But realized that would be shortsighted.

On the net, services must be inclusive and not exclusive to provide the greatest value. Thus all law blogs (subject to some editorial thresholds will be included). We'll start with LexBlog client blogs to test things but then do the development work needed to aggregate RSS feeds from non LexBlog clients.

I'm confident we can provide value to law bloggers - increased readership, profiles that will further enhance their reputations fully indexed on Google, and community features (built out over time) that allow for a rewarding experience for bloggers and non-bloggers alike.

I do not envision ads being placed on blogs because LM has accepted them into a network which LM has self anointed as the best law bloggers. That's ALM's law.com model right now. Not of great value to anyone as I see it and something I am sure Incisive Media, their owner, is not going to stick to as their blog play.