I've been reviewing how the first three weeks of 2009 have been going financially across our businesses. I thought I would share with you what I know so far.

We had assumed coming into the year that '09 would be substantially weaker than '08 (which, in turn, finished out about 4% below '07 on the revenue line). And so we set our budgets for '09 at what we thought was a very conservative level, assuming that this will be a difficult year for the US economy. It took us something like 7 rounds of budgeting--one lower than the next--to finally get a budget that made sense. (My thanks to all those in our financial area and our controllers/business managers around the country who kept having to redo their numbers).

Looking at the month of January as well as advertising bookings for the next several months, we can see some hopeful signs but also a few lingering challenges. Overall, we are off to an even slower start than we had assumed. On the hopeful side of the equation:

1. Display and business-to-business advertising in our legal newspapers, magazines and online has started off well, with areas like technology and the legal publishers showing continued interest in reaching our audience via our publications and websites.

2. Public Notice advertising, particularly in our Florida and NY newspapers, has continued to build on the growth we saw in 2008.

3. Books--both nationally through Law Journal Press and regionally through the expanded New Jersey and Connecticut book publishing operations--continue to show strength in terms of both new books and updates to existing ones.

4. Sponsorship and Exhibition revenues for our Events businesses in the US and Canada have started out well, including next week's LegalTech in NY and the SES London exhibition scheduled for mid-February.

On the other hand, here are the risk areas which will make achieving our '09 budget an ongoing challenge:

1. The Real Estate group continues to feel the pain of the industry it covers, with all indications that the troubles in the commercial real estate sector will get worse before they get better.

2. While our Events business has seen success in selling sponsors and exhibitors, we have seen a slowdown on the paid attendance side. Many law firms and businesses are cutting back on travel, or cutting down the numbers of staff who can attend any given conference. We count on paid attendance to cover a substantial part of our Event revenue budget.

3. Law Firm advertising, particularly in our national magazines, has started the year very slowly. Many firms are reducing expenses across the board and putting advertising/marketing plans on hold as they sort out the new business environment.

4. While we will likely achieve our short-term subscription revenue goals, there is clearly a move by some firms to cut back on the numbers of our publications which they receive. New order sales have slowed down, and we need to keep a close eye on those trends.

Even if you are not directly involved in the budgeting process, you know that we have been tightening our expenses and reviewing all of our business processes. We will need to continue doing so. Remember that we are not just in a ferocious recession, but also experiencing rapid changes in the way in which news and information will be produced and delivered. Even our most successful businesses will need to be constantly reviewed to meet the evolving needs of the markets we serve.

For those in revenue-generating areas---keep at it. There are still many opportunities for us to succeed in this market, as canny marketers understand the need to expand their business development activities. We can help them do so, whether it's a law firm looking for new clients, a commercial property owner with excess space to fill, or a search engine product marketer looking to promote the newest software tool.