Lawyer blogs changing legal publishing as we know it

American Lawyer Media – ALM, the publisher of 33 national and regional magazines and newspapers, including The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, and The National Law Journal, is today’s leading legal publisher.

Is it possible legal blogs could change all of that in the coming years? Crazier things have happened with the advent of the Internet over the last 10 years.

This last week I was speaking with Lisa Berman, an excellent reporter. She was doing a follow up story for the New Jersey Law Journal, one of ALM’s newspapers, to Lisa’s earlier story (no link/sub. req’ed) on Chubb’s denial of malpractice coverage to law firms with blogs.

Lisa could not get Chubb’s lawyers to respond when she was doing her earlier story. However, Chubb issued a press release with its position on blogs only 2 days after I emailed Chubb with reference to my blog post on Chubb’s refusal to cover. My blog post of course referenced all the lawyers blogging about Chubb’s denial of coverage.

Coincidence that Chubb issued its press release after my email? I don’t think so. And I don’t believe Lisa did either.

Blogs and interactive media are having a a significant impact on traditional reporting and publishing. Publishing companies would be wise to begin to hire professionals who are skilled in interactive media and blogging as well as to develop business models that incorporate such citizen journalism and interactive media.