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March 26, 2010

Healthcare Reform

Unless you have been living under a rock, you are no doubt aware that the long-debated Healthcare Reform Bill was passed by Congress and signed by the President this week.  It is, to say the least, a complicated piece of legislation.  Like many of  you, I have been trying to figure out what impact the new rules and regulations will have on ALM and on us as individuals.  For the past dozen years we have utilized the services of a team of consultants at PricewaterhouseCoopers to help us navigate our way through the health insurance maze.  I asked the partner we work with there, Aron Minken, to give me PWC's early analysis of how the Healthcare Reform bill will impact us.  In the...

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 6:54 PM | | Comments (0)

March 25, 2010

Re-Thinking Magazines

This is simultaneously a challenging and an exciting time to be involved with magazine publishing.  Challenging because of the rapid movement by traditional magazine advertisers away from print and branding campaigns and toward online and direct response/search advertising.  Magazines are evolving their subscription models to capture more revenue from readers, but that change will take a lot of time to implement and is not guaranteed to succeed.  So the challenge is how to manage the short-term impact of business model change while putting yourself in the best position to succeed in the future. And that's where the excitement comes in.  Editors and art directors are now actively working to re-think what the magazine of the future will be and, in...

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 5:26 PM | | Comments (2)

March 24, 2010

Getting the Most Out of Conference Attendance

I know a lot of people here attend conferences and tradeshows during the course of the year.  In some cases, we attend for the conference content and the educational value.  But in many cases we attend for the networking -- the chance to meet people who might become our customers or our partners in one of our businesses.  We know from our own experience as conference and tradeshow producers how powerful that mix of content and networking can be for those who register and attend our programs. Getting the most out of a conference takes a little work upfront, particularly the networking part.  And I've often struggled with whether I was doing all the preparation I should be in order to...

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 8:05 PM | | Comments (0)

March 17, 2010

Monetizing Social Media

It feels to me like the conversation about social media is finally moving on from "how should we use Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook" to "how do we monetize our usage of social media tools".  I've been looking around for case studies in how other media organizations are doing and, frankly, there aren't many.  But here's a recent post on the PBS.org "mediashift" blog that provides some good examples of what others are doing.  Should be of particular interest to those in Circulation/Audience Development and Advertising. http://tinyurl.com/ye9jckw...

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 6:23 AM | | Comments (2)

March 15, 2010

Rob Steinbaum Honored By New Jersey Ballet

This past Saturday night Rob Steinbaum, publisher extraordinaire of The New Jersey Law Journal since 1987, was honored by the New Jersey Ballet for his contributions to Newark and the Arts.  The honor was bestowed as the ballet company celebrated its 51st year at a gala performance and black tie dinner attended by many of Rob's friends and colleagues.  Among those was Rob's long-time friend Justice Samuel Alito of the US Supreme Court, pictured with Rob below, who returned to Newark specifically to be a part of the celebration. As many of us know, Rob is the creator and producer of the Celebration of Lawyers in the Arts, which has become a biannual event at the New Jersey Performing Arts...

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 1:55 AM | | Comments (1)

March 12, 2010

Big Day at the Neal Awards for ALM

Today at a luncheon in New York, American Business Media announced the Neal Awards, which are often described as the Pulitzers of the Business Press.  ALM had 5 winners:   1.  Best Profile Article -- Texas Lawyer for Miriam Rozen's article "The Blue Period:  Lisa Blue-Baron Carries On Legacy of Her Late Husband". 2.  Best Single Issue of a Tabloid/Newspaper -- Texas Lawyer for its issue of October 19th, 2009. 3.  Best Subject Related Series of Articles -- The Legal Intelligencer for "The New Firm Order" 4.  Best Single Article -- The American Lawyer for Susan Beck's piece "Saving Anthony Harris". 5.  Best Integrated Package (Print and Web) -- Corporate Counsel Magazine for "Was He Listening" by Sue Reisinger.  ...

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 1:26 AM | | Comments (0)

March 10, 2010

My 12th Anniversary

Tuesday was my 12th anniversary working for ALM.  Twelve years ago--on March 9, 1998--I started working for what was then known as American Lawyer Media.  It was about two months after the merger of the former American Lawyer Group with the NY Law Publishing Company, and just before the acquisitions of LegalTech and the Pennsylvania Legal Media Group.  So I came on board at just the point where our company began to take shape as the leading publisher in the US of current news and information for the legal profession.  I've been thinking all day about the changes in the company since I joined.  The office moves, the new product launches, and the move from almost entirely print to a...

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 7:51 AM | | Comments (2)

March 7, 2010

Why We Have To Enter the Social Media Waters

Here's a column I wrote for the current issue of Media Business magazine about why the leadership of B2B media companies should focus more of their attention on social media.  Let me know what you think.http://bit.ly/cooKAK...

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 1:06 PM | | Comments (1)

March 3, 2010

More Improvements to Our Web Sites

Congratulations to our colleagues at The Legal Intelligencer in Philadelphia on the launch of their terrific redesigned website.  Take a look at http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com.  It represents where all of our new website designs are going...a cleaner less-cluttered look, improved navigation, more visible links to blogs, videos and related stories, and more inter-active offerings, like polls, for readers.  I know that publisher Hal Cohen and editor Hank Grezlak and their team put a lot of work into this new design, and they were assisted by our web production teams in NY and San Francisco.  Take a look and let us all know what you think. Also this week, our web production team introduced an improved Website Registration offering.  Although a bit "behind the...

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 8:57 AM | | Comments (0)

Hong Kong Lawyers and Food

  One big change I have noticed from my prior visits to Hong Kong has been the fact that we now have a reporter -- Tony Lin -- based here and covering the region.  Law firms, in particular, seem to take us more seriously because they perceive that we are investing in the region and taking them more seriously.  And Tony, despite having been here for only one year, has really insinuated himself within the legal world, becoming well known both for his reporting and his gourmet appetite.  If you find yourself in the area and want to know where to find the hole-in-the-wall restaurant with absolutely the best and most authentic Chinese food in the city, apparently Tony's your guy....

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 4:30 AM | | Comments (0)

March 2, 2010

Hong Kong

  What do you get when you mix dense fog with heavy pollution?  Winter in Hong Kong.  Arrived here on Sunday evening to spend the week with Danny Collins from our London office, calling on law firms, recruiters and others who have an interest in advertising with us.  Good thing I didn't come to see the view of Hong Kong harbor--it is barely visible through the haze. (The picture above isn't mine...comes from a tourist brochure, so you can see what the harbor looks like when the night is relatively clear). A few quick observations after one day of meetings. 1.  Apparently there was a recession that had a big impact on some parts of the world.  But you'd never...

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Posted by Bill Pollak at 4:00 AM | | Comments (0)

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