End of an era in Seattle : Sad day in journalism could signal new beginning for the American lawyer

Today marked the last print edition of Seattle’s Post Intelligencer, a 145 year old daily newspaper with more than 217,000 subscribers.

Riding the ferry in this morning I read stories about the last day in the newsroom that began with an announcement that tomorrow’s edition (this am’s) would be the last print edition of the PI. Tears, hugs, and whiskey followed. A young couple ran from an ultrasound of their first child to be with the only co-workers they had known.

I read columns being being penned for the last time. Each columnist reporting how excited they were when they got a job offer from the paper 20 plus years ago. Must have been like getting that first real law job. The stuff you call Mom and Dad about, being they were the ones who worked to put you to school to become a professional and whom you always shared your joys with.

It was sad to think of an institution like your daily paper going out of business. Journalists and reporters who have played a key role in government and civic affairs losing their jobs with seemingly no where to get a job in a profession they cherished.

Imagine your law firm closing combined with the realization that lawyers are no longer needed. It’s got to be just as shocking to those who have been employed by the PI for decades.

The local paper was something kids like me growing up in a small Midwest town held in awe. What could be a better first job than being the local paper boy? Even if it meant Dad helping find the papers to be delivered under 18 inches of snow or helping pull the sled so they could get to everyone’s door before they woke.

As a lawyer, you must remember the first time you got a call from the local paper about a matter you were working on. I sure do. What should I say? Do I say I’ll call you back so I have time to compose myself? Can I read what you’re going to report before it goes to print? Isn’t there a legal ethics rule which precludes me from saying anything that’s not in a pleading?

And nothing was better than shooting the shit with the local beat reporter who covered local courts while waiting till midnight for a jury verdict. Wow, the stories a young lawyer like I heard.

As sad as it was reading this morning’s PI, I was struck by where the PI is headed. They’re going online with a staff of only 20. Rather than trying to cover all the news, the PI is going to rely, in part, on 100’s of bloggers, both local and national.

Rather than an editor using their skill to cull the best stories, they’ll use their skills to cull the best from citizen journalists. First, they’ll identify the best bloggers and from there they’ll select the best posts to be displayed in an online version of the PI.

Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at New York University and leading commentator on new media whose blog is not to be missed, offered this this morning on our PI going online:

[T]he smart thing to do is not pretend that you have everything, but to link to the best that’s out there. If you are better at linking to everything that is important, then that is a basis for user loyalty.

For you as lawyer, especially if you believe in the institution of the press, newspapers going online represent a huge opportunity. Rather than trying to get print with a quote now and then. Replace the local paper’s coverage of the law with abbreviated legal coverage in your niche via a blog.

You get your own paper with your blog. In addition you offer blog posts to the online local paper via syndication, or better yet do a ‘reader’s blog’ for the paper covering a point of law or legal question each week.

In a short time, you’ll have local business associates coming up to you telling you how they like what you’re covering. In time, friends in the grocery store will tell you how they liked one of your posts answering a consumer or small business law question.

Is this nuts? I don’t think so. I’ve spoke to 3 lawyers in smaller towns (40,000 to 80,000 in size) within the last week who we agreed this was the way to go. A local ‘law talk’ if you will.

They’ll have a blog which makes them real, genuine, and part of the fabric of their community. Something they and their family will be proud of. And something that establishes them as a lawyer and a friend. Something that will retain existing clients and get new ones.

So as saddened as I am about the PI this morning, I’m inspired by the opportunity I have to lead LexBlog, which employs 6 people with journalism degrees, to help and empower the next generation of legal reporters – the American lawyer.