WordPress and law blogs democratizing publishing
In an interview with the Guardian’s Robin Hough (@Robbierare) this week WordPress co-founder, Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt), reiterated the mission of WordPress and its for profit services arm, Automattic, to democratize publishing.
We were never setting out to disrupt the New York Times or the Guardian. Who we were disrupting were the vendors who were charging you guys $5 and $10 million for crappy software. It was bad IT departments maybe who were getting disrupted, but not the actual publications. WordPress has always been about the office and about writing and things like that so a lot of times how we got into CNN, New York Times, Wall St Journal, basically the who’s who of publishing and online journalism – journalism in general – was from the bottom up. So it was a journalist who had permission and set up a blog somewhere and then it just kind of took off and then someone higher up took and look and said “this is working kind of well, let’s do more of it” and so eventually it makes its way up to the CTO. But we almost never, ever come in through the top, we always come in through the bottom.
I am no Matt Mullenweg, nor is LexBlog a WordPress. But from day one, almost 10 years ago, I felt LexBlog was playing a role in democratizing publishing for lawyers.
First, journals, law reviews, bar publications, and trade industry publications always seemed to be the province of academics, law review veterans, and association insiders. Every day lawyers had not the time nor publishing expertise to make it by the gatekeepers.
Second, as the Internet came to life, the duopoly of LexisNexis and West n/k/a Thomson-West-FindLaw largely seized the market in Internet marketing solutions and online directories. Lawyers complained of overpriced products which often under delivered.
Along came blogging which enabled lawyers armed with passion and experience to share their insight with the public.
As with WordPress, law blogging grew from the bottom up. Individual lawyers, in large and small firms, started their own blogs or contacted LexBlog. It was a real grassroots and democratic process. Maybe too democratic for firms who wanted to control “their messaging.”
Law blogging worked it’s way up to CMO’s, marketing directors, and other law firm leaders. As Matt says, it was “this is working kind of well, let’s do more of it.”
Blogging also freed lawyers from expensive Internet marketing solutions which never did harness the true power of the Internet – communication and engagement.
Some lawyers opted for free or very low cost solutions such as Blogger, Typepad, and later on, WordPress. Other lawyers not wanting to tinker and looking for professional consulting, design, coaching, marketing, hosting and ongoing support opted for LexBlog’s professional turnkey solution.
Either way, lawyers and law firms were freed of the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars they were paying for Internet marketing solutions and online directory listings.
And rather than good lawyers who never advertised before the Internet paying to advertise online (websites, SEO, alerts, etc) lawyers used blogging to do business development the old fashioned way. Lawyers engaged people to build relationships and a strong word of mouth reputation through this new medium for publishing.
Blogging. Democracy. A good fit.