I love the idea behind targeting the younger generation.

Aside from the social value of contributing to our community and the personal satisfaction of making a difference in the world, there is a business benefit as well. People like to do business with companies that have a social conscience.

Being affiliated with or, better yet, introducing a social initiative that your industry can relate to will give you a competitive edge. As long as the true purpose is to make a positive contribution to society, the byproduct is that you will be perceived within your industry as a social benefactor rather then just a profit hungry enterprise.

I've seen this work. It can be very powerful. And everybody wins.

And what better way to build brand affinity than by targeting future lawyers when they are young. If law school bound/graduating students become acquainted with and often use our services as a news source now, they are even more likely to do so in the future. As well the younger generation helps to drive the technological advancements in media and communication. By focusing on this group we can better make sure we are on the edge of what is fresh and new in the media industry (weather it be blogs, webcasts ... etc.)

Hi Bill!

I think this is a great site and it allows us all to be more open and ask you questions.

My question is this:

Re: Your "Core Values."

It's a great idea to have Core Values within a company, especially those that say respect your peers, colleagues and clients.

What a fantastic idea!

How come you don't actually practice them, though?

It looks to me like most, if not all, of your employees are emotionally depressed. Your benefit plan is ridiculous. What other firm asks for their employees to pay over $5000 for a family's insurance while you pad your pockets with millions?

Everything you do is designed to minimize your employees' mental health. You treat us all so badly, while you have your nice little office overlooking the rest of the world.

So my question is:

What core values? As has been said recently: "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

I want to respond to the comment by "Felicia".

Although the original ground rules for this blog required that all comments be signed and not anonymous, I thought this comment raised an important set of questions and deserved an open airing. In the future, I really do believe that we are all grown-ups in this company and that all comments should be signed.

I also think that posting this comment speaks to my commitment to our Core Values, including the idea of transparency that I articulated above.

I don’t see the evidence of “emotional depression” in our staff that this writer claims is so prevalent. In fact, quite the opposite. The comments I have received from staff in our new office spaces in NY as well as what I hear from employees in our offices around the country is generally quite positive. In the new offices, I know that some people have issues with private space and other matters, but the overall comments about 120 Broadway and 4 MetroTech have been overwhelmingly positive.

One group you would expect to have negative things to say about our company would be those who are leaving us. We always ask those individuals to fill in an anonymous exit survey, to tell us why they are leaving and what they liked or disliked about the company. So far this year 72% of exiting employees “thought the company offered a respectful, inclusive and friendly work environment”. And the vast majority reported that “they loved our reputation for quality journalism and the workplace culture”. Other companies would be envious of those kinds of comments, particularly from people who are leaving and have no need to say nice things.

With regard to benefits, we work very hard to ensure that our benefits plans are competitive both with other media companies and with other mid-size businesses in the regions in which we operate. We offer a number of different health plan options, including the IN Plan, so that employees can find the most economical way possible to handle their health costs. The fact is that health insurance has become oppressively expensive in this country to the point where it has become a major burden for both businesses and individuals. We put a lot of effort into mitigating that burden for our employees and, compared with others in our industry, offer an extremely competitive plan.

I think there is much to be gained from having a set of Core Values to which we can aspire as we go about our work. My sense is that Incisive Media does pretty well against those values, but could always do better. I’d like to think that as a group we are committed to working together to move closer to achieving those goals.

--Bill

I want to chime in here as an "on-the-ground" mid level Director here at Incisive in NY. My team has seen a tremendous growth in work and has been asked to deliver above and beyond, and they have done so admirably, so we are no stranger to the tasks and even challenges asked of all of us here at Incisive.

But there is no question that there is respect, support, leadership and understanding by Bill and senior management.

Lets take a sensitive issue like the move - as a part of the committee I watched first hand the dedication Allison Hoffman and crew took in our move. While many are complaining of short comings, it only reflects their lack of understanding of how monumental this process was. There was indeed careful consideration about work stations and employee comfort that continue today.

Is the new location/situation currently perfect? Certainly not. But the true vision and teamwork to make this new location perfect will not come from Bill and senior management, it will come from us out in the work stations - working together, collaborating and creating great work.

As a part of the re-branding committee I had the opportunity to see senior management's dedication to helping all areas make the process as pain less as possible. That's not a company that disrespects its employees that’s a company handing them the tools to be successful, what you do with them is up to you.

I come from a long line of aggressive NY companies. I have seen employee mistreatment. This is not it.
Bill had the power to delete that post rather than post it and respond, that right there should show you the dedication to transparency. Frankly, he is more likely to not post this agreeable one.

Success and career satisfaction are not inalienable rights handed down from management, they are ultimately our responsibility. The opportunity to collaborate, and support each other has been handed to us, and with it the chance to do things at Incisive that ALM never afforded us. Those grumbling about lack of vision, respect and forethought best look inward for the answer.

Lastly, anyone thinking this is a shameful way to "kiss up" than you've missed the point entirely. Lets hope we keep the conversation going, but in the right direction.

Marc

You mentioned new media, but blogs, as fantastic as they are, are about as old as new media gets. Since you asked for thoughts, here are a few of mine.

One, look at Twitter (www.Twitter.com). People can subscribe to an individual's or organization's feed and follow updates, called "tweets" throughout the day. The New York Times uses this to drive readers to their home page http://twitter.com/nytimes is their feed. Political candidates use it to get their message out. We could use it to update any breaking or just interesting news with a link to the relevant article. Pownce and Jaiku are trying to take Twitter's place, but Twitter is holding on quite well.

Two, think about podcasts. More people listen to podcasts than read blogs. They're easier. They're more convenient. If done well, they're a powerful venue to get a message across. I host my own podcasts (Knit Spirit and The WritingCast) and reach thousands of people every week. Not many companies have taken full advantage of this media yet, but it's exploding and it's not a bad idea to get a handle on what it can offer.

Three, and I think this talks to your concerns more than any of the other resources, consider social networking sites. These can be as generic as facebook or as specialized as Ravelry or online-literature.com. They have forums for discussions and information exchange. If you want cross-communication, that's the resource to go to. I'd hold up Ravelry as a best of breed. If you want to see it, it's still invitation only, but you can use my account to get in if you want.

I don't know if this is the right forum to ask, but is there any plan of moving away from the dead tree magazine and book distribution method with parallel electronic editions?

E-book readers, and here Amazon's Kindle tops the market, have improved to the point where they provide a reading experience superior to that provided by paper. People could subscribe to the New York Law Journal, for example, and have it show up right on their device or in their inbox.

Electronic editions are easier to search, easier to reference, easier to store, and cheaper to produce and deliver. Add the environmental benefits and it's an easy winner.

The running fear seems to be piracy, but in truth, it's easy enough to scan printed matter into a PDF. E-books are no more nor less secure, with the exception of mobipocket. Secure mobipocket volumes encode the purchaser's credit card number, name, and expiration date. No one is putting one of those files up on an fileshare site

Wow. This is all very entertaining. I like this transparency stuff.

Let me weigh in a bit about what is going on here in Texas. The lower half of our state has no power, people are missing and it may be weeks before businesses are back up and working. The Chase building that has been in the news so much the last day is inhabitable on the lower thirty floors. I was there less than two weeks ago visiting clients and potential clients. It is full of law firms. Our business will be affected adversely by Hurricane Ike and I proposed this morning that we at Texas Lawyer do what we can to help our readers, subscribers and advertisers to disseminate information on when offices will be reopened, if at all; and other vital information to their peers in Texas,Corporate Counsels and In-House Attorneys. We may not sell anything to anyone down south in the next few days but we will show them that we are truly their partner in media, communications and real life. While this doesn't have any relationship to the other blogs posted in the last couple of days; I felt it was important information to share with the whole company.
Thanks,

Business Week recently launched its Web 2.0 initiative called the Business Exchange (http://bx.businessweek.com/) What makes it so powerful is that this new tool isn’t meant to replace print, but complement it by giving users the ability to do collaboratively online what print media doesn’t let them. The ability to aggregate, save and contribute to news and blog content on topics of interest. Over the next few years, there are bound to be more of these vertical-specific content aggregation platforms as Media companies look beyond Digital Editions. What sets this apart from other user-enabled news sources (that offer Web 2.0 features like commenting etc.) is that a very active user community contributes to and helps expand a topic by adding their own news sources. Relevancy isn’t dictated by a search engine logic but interest and expertise. Then there is the ability to create online networks of users interested in similar topics, and using the ‘most active’ topic and ‘most active users’ tool to help keep abreast with what’s being talked about and by who. Something like this is bound to become a powerful research tool and increase reader stickiness. In my opinion this is not only Web 2.0 but also Digital Media 2.0.

Since nobody else so far has expressed this point of view, allow me to represent what I suspect is a large segment of our audience. As an example, I subscribe to the NY Times. I want it on paper. I want the editors to tell me what I need to know, and I want it handed to me in daily in a package that I can hold in my hand, carry anywhere, save for tomorrow if I want to. Yes, I also consult the web site very often (as a matter of fact it is my "home" page on my browser) but that will never offer the same experience as print. I also find incessant e-alerts annoying, even from the publications that I value. I will be willing to pay whatever is asked when paper and postage costs rise. I am only 49, so I am not going away any time soon. As they seek to present content in new ways, I hope publishers will not throw me and other customers who prefer traditional media overboard! PS I also like books -- that's right, on dead trees!

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