Law blogs become go-to source for in-house counsel

Looking at these highlights from the Corporate Counsel New Media Engagement Survey (pdf), there’s no question law blogs have become a go-to source of legal industry news and information for in-house counsel.

• The social networking and new media tools that in-house counsel most frequently use for professional reasons are LinkedIn, blogs, and Wikipedia.
• While in-house counsel continue to rely on “traditional media” as their leading sources for business-related news and information, 43 percent cited blogs among their top “go-to” sources.
• New media platforms receiving the highest ranking by in-house counsel for their credibility as information sources include Martindale-Hubbell Connected, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, and blogs.
• Blogs are the most frequently used tool among in-house lawyers at the largest companies (revenue of $1.5 billion to $9.9 billion) with 35 percent having visited a blog in the past 24 hours, and 54 percent in the past week.
• 45 percent of companies with revenue of less than $10 million cited blogs among their top sources of information as did 48 percent of companies with revenue of $1.5 billion to $9.9 billion.
• Blogs ranked 4th ahead of General Business Web sites, Web Sites Covering Your Industry, Broadcast Media, and Social Media Web Sites, again reflecting growing acceptance of the medium among in-house counsel as an increasingly important source of information. Legal industry trade media, general business media, and industry trade media were the top 3.

The popularity of law blogs for in-house counsel is only going to increase. 53 percent of in-house counsel expect that their consumption of industry news and information via new media platforms, including blogs, will increase over the next six months to a year.

Blogs are a part of in-house counsels’ preference for on-line news. 62 percent of in-house counsel prefer to access their news online via publication web sites compared to 42 percent who prefer the print vehicle.

It’s going to become increasingly difficult for legal publications to compete with law blogs published by practicing lawyers. In-house counsel need timely, reliable, and insightful information and commentary. A lawyer with personal, hands-on expertise is better equipped to provide this than reporters and editors employed by legal publishers.

Thanks to the folks at Greentarget, American Lawyer Media, and The Zeughauser Group for conducting the survey.