What is the digital paywall for ALM and Law.com?

Lauren Indvik (@laureni) of Mashable reports this morning that the New York Times digital paywall continues to show signs of success.

Approximately 532,000 people now subscribe, up 13% from the paywall’s one-year anniversary in mid-March, according to The New York Times Company’s second quarter earnings report, released Thursday.

The company contributes the uptick in circulation primarily to the latest tightening of its paywall. Non-subscribers can now only read 10 articles per month; during the first year, they were able to read 20 per month. Digital subscriptions cost between $15 and $35 per month.

The paywall’s growth, along with an increase in home-delivery and weekday single-copy prices, led to an 8% increase in circulation revenues for the quarter, which offset a continued decline in both print (-8%) and digital (-4%) advertising.

I subscribe to NY Times digital on my iPad for a couple reasons. One, the reporters, editorial, and content are top notch. Second, I can share relevant articles with my followers on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn — and those followers can then read the NY Times content I shared without having a Times digital subscription.

The Times apparently realizes that influencers and amplifiers should be able to share the Times’ content with followers who trust them. That’s the very definition of social media. People get news and info socially from others they trust, not necessarily from the brand publisher, in this case the NY Times.

This brings me to ALM’s 16 legal publications and it’s flagship site, Law.com, which pulls all of ALM’s content together. Does anyone understand how their digital paywall works?

The content from ALM publications and Law.com can be very good. They cover items of interest to me. I get email updates and may even get some content via RSS feeds. But I am often locked out of accessing the content because I am not a subscriber.

I am not even sure what I need to subscribe to. Do I pay a subscription fee to access all ALM/Law.com digital content? Do I need to subscribe to individual ALM publications? If so, that could be pretty pricey. If I am a subscriber, can those who follow me on social media read the ALM content? If not, I am unable to ‘move’ ALM’s content via social media.

I am sure there’s a way to access ALM’s legal publications online and Law.com. But I have not been unable to figure it out. And I don’t know what ALM’s philosophy is as far as social media and my ability as a subscriber to share ALM content with my followers.

I like your stuff ALM. Tell me how to access it and share it in this world where social media reigns. Doing so, you could start to have a successful digital paywall like the NY Times in the legal vertical.