1.  Our content tagging project has made great progress, and we're now beginning to see the fruits of all that effort.  The "NStein" product which we are using as our tagging engine has now been trained, thanks to a great deal of effort by editors throughout the company.  Even while we continue to fine-tune the tagging, we're preparing to have the tool go back through our entire archive to apply those tags, which will dramatically improve search results and present more relevant content to our readers.  Down the road, those content tags will also allow our advertising sales team to sell much more sophisticated and targeted advertising, keyed against specific content (e.g. litigation).  You can see an early application of tagging on some of law.com's article pages -- here's an example: 

http://www.law.com/jsp/law/article.jsp?id=1202470031244&BratzBarbie_Fight_Gets_Ugly_With_RICO_IP_Theft_Claims

Note on the right-hand side the box which shows "Firms and Companies in this Article".  And at the bottom you can see the tag-cloud based on concepts from the article itself.  Our goal is to encourage greater "stickiness" on our sites -- having readers see more pages, read more articles, and spend more time with us.  This is a very important step forward, one which will be rolling out over the next several months.

2.  The New York Smart Litigator is set to launch on September 20th.  We're in the final stages of getting ready for that launch -- refining our marketing and customer service plans, double-checking our content and all the links on the site, etc.  This may have been the most complex bit of product development we have ever done, and we have learned a great deal through the process.  My hope is that we will now be able to move faster to introduce updated versions with enhanced capabilities for our NY customers as well as new launches in additional states.

3.  Our Digital Book initiative has also made great progress.  Larry Selby and his team are now beta testing the software which will enable Law Journal Press customers to access our treatises electronically.  Currently we have 5 6 books on the system, and plan to have an additional 40 treatises digitized and available to our customers by year-end. 

4.  You may have seen that our LawJobs site relaunched at the end of July.  Next up is the Daily Business Review website, which will launch on August 31st.  Future website relaunches now in various stages of  design include law.com, NY Lawyer, and Law Technology News.

5.  Digital Directories are clearly in demand.  The new Expert Witness directory product launched at the end of June, though improvements continue to be made.  GlobeSt's Directory is expected to be ready by the end of this month, with the new CLE Directory not far behind.  Work on directories of Recruiters and Judges is now underway.

6.  As if they don't have enough to do, Jill Windwer, Gene Bishop, their teams and many folks from our product groups have been working this summer on a new E-Commerce initiative, designing a new system to replace LawCatalog.  The team has received proposals from a variety of vendors which they are now sifting through.  Too soon to know the exact timetable for this one, but look for launch sometime in 2011.

This is all very important work, as we rollout the infrastructure necessary for our transition from a print-centric to a more digitally-centric business.  If I have left off an important project from the list above, please feel free to add it below in the comments.

So I've been pleased to see the recent expansion in the number of our businesses which are posting new job openings.  By my count there are now almost 30 open positions in the company, and I am aware of a number of others in the pipeline that will be posted in the coming weeks.  Some are to fill positions that came open because someone else left -- but quite a few are brand new jobs, created to meet our new product development requirements.  There's a good spread of both editorial and business positions and, while many of these are located in NY, quite a few of the postings are from our offices in Miami, DC, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

The current postings can be found on ALM InHouse:

http://inhouse.alm.com/upload/images/hr-benefits/hr/vacantjobsoninhouse.pdf 

If you are interested in promotional possibilities and career development at ALM, this list would be a good place to start.  And even if these jobs are not for you, perhaps you have a friend with the skills we are seeking -- pass the information on to them.  If we hire someone you refer to us, you'll qualify for our $2,000 Employee Referral Bonus.

1.  Curating the Legal Web? (http://www.slaw.ca/2010/08/13/curating-the-legal-web/) -- posted on a Canadian legal commentary site called "Slaw".   The author correctly points out that the idea of curating content is neither new nor original.  But he makes it clear that, at least in his view, no one is doing it very well right now for the legal community.  So maybe there's room for someone to step in and become a true hub for discovering news of interest to lawyers throughout the legal web.  The question is, should it be us?

2. The Growing Importance of Content Curation (http://talkingdigital.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/the-growing-importance-of-content-curation/) -- posted by Australian tech blogger Ben Shepherd.  His is a more general discussion, raising the question of whether the audience one would attract by creating a curation hub would be attractive to advertisers. He obviously thinks it would be.  For me, the jury is out.

We're in the process of redesigning law.com as a portal to all of ALM's content.  Is it too late to ask if we should be expanding our horizons, turning law.com into a curation portal for the legal web (or at least the parts of it that we focus our journalism on)?  I'd love to hear from our editors and journalists how they feel about Curation in general -- whether we truly have the expertise to become "guides" to the legal web on behalf of our readers.  And if we should pursue that course more seriously.  

One thing that becomes clear is the evolving nature of social media.  Not only are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. now a way to keep in touch with a network of friends and colleagues.  They are also way to build a customized reading list -- to stay abreast of the kinds of news and information which we might miss if we just followed our usual reading patterns.  And who better to trust with those recommendations than those we have chosen to follow on the social media platforms.  Those we follow now become "curators", pointing us to content that they found interesting and think we might want to know about.

Editors, of course, play that same role as curators of content -- not just creators of original work but also pointing our readers toward work created by others that would be of interest.  Readers, I think, count on good editors now to be less parochial and restrictive, and assume that websites will point them outside to others' work, and not try to restrict readers within a single domain.  That's why I favor including on our redesigned websites blog postings and twitter feeds from selected outside contributors -- with our editors doing the selecting, deciding which voices are the most worthwhile for our readers to hear.  Our newspapers and magazines have done this for years, selecting outside columnists and opinion writers who have expert knowledge on a topic or a point-of-view that we think our readers would want to know about. 

Social media now allows that same curatorial process to go on, but with many more curators involved in the process.  As the Mashable article points out, there are now numerous tools for accessing the "Personalized Social Media News Stream", and undoubtedly more coming.  But the world still needs high quality editors who have the background knowledge to separate the "signal from the noise".  That's a role that I want to make sure we are positioned to play on behalf of the readers we serve, whether on existing platforms or new ones as they come along.  

ABM's interest in this study (and ours) was in asking whether there are additional ways in which our B2B media businesses could better meet the needs of leading marketers.  If we know, for instance, that integrated marketing campaigns are becoming a more important part of the marketing mix, then we can work to ensure that our advertising proposals better reflect that trend.  Or if certain kinds of marketing services (e.g. marketing research or help in creating collateral materials) have become ones which marketers are looking to partner with others on, we can add those to our list of offerings.

The study was a broad one -- 150 in-depth interviews with marketers from across the spectrum of B2B businesses.  We're working with Booz on a project to go deeper in the legal category, to make sure in particular that we can compare law firm marketers with those in related industries like financial services and accounting.  But even the broad study can provide us with some insights.  The most important that I heard in the presentation yesterday concerned the value leading marketers put on partnering with others for data management (e.g. adding information to their customer information systems) and customer insight.  I think there is much we can do in both of those areas. 

Those involved in ad sales and marketing may find some good information in the study -- as ABM members, we have full access.  There will be a free webinar presentation on this research next Tuesday, August 17th at 2:00 ET.  For more information and in order to register, click here:

 http://www.americanbusinessmedia.com/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=209&SnID=422624256

Details on the awards can be found here:

http://www.alm.com/pressroom/2010/08/04/alm%e2%80%99s-the-american-lawyer-law-technology-news-win-asbpe-national-azbee-awards-of-excellence/

"I'm very happy to announce that the lawjobs.com redesign has launched and is now live!  You can see the new site at www.lawjobs.com. 

Please note: We had to change a Domain setting, so if you're inside the network, you may need to reboot your computer in order to see the new site.

It took a lot of help from a lot of people to get this site launched, but I want to extend my gratitude to a few folks that really put a ton of effort into making this a reality:

·         Jeff Cheung for leading the production code effort, for staying late, and for always having a solution.

·         James Oda for the design.  James has been dialing in on the design every step of the way, and the results are superb.

·         Mindy McDaniels, Brian Witt, Vince Gravinese, and Grace Yanez for all the guidance and hard work from the Site Catalyst side.

·         Matt Perkins, Frank Walden, Rodney James and Michael Whitman for the development, redirects, and domain changes.

·         Katie Magee and Annie Baker for all their help in getting a number of the pages coded.

·         Anne Jackley for all of the SEO and tagging help.

·         Audree Wong and Brenda Estrada for their help with the nuts and bolts on the operational side of the site.

·         Last but definitely not least, Chris Braun for being a great client.  Chris has been very diligent, focused, and clear about the requirements and expectations, while at the same time understanding when we had to push back.

There are still a few things we'll need to clean up over the coming days, so if you happen to see anything that looks odd, please don't hesitate to contact me.  Hope you like the new look and feel.

Thanks again to all involved!"

Meanwhile, I'm boycotting pomegranate juice until we get this matter resolved.

Last week, just as the National Law Journal was ready to go to press, we received word that the subject of one of our stories was headed to court to secure a temporary restraining order against us.  Here's how editor-in-chief David Brown explained the situation in his editor's note:

What appears here is not the full story. Minutes before our deadline Friday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff signed a temporary restraining order against The National Law Journal enjoining it from publishing certain details that we legally obtained from court documents. Specifically, we are not allowed to name a government agency conducting a regulatory inquiry into one of the subjects of the article, POM Wonderful. We fought this order vigorously in court; we thought and continue to think that it is a violation of the First Amendment, and we are working on an appeal. Bartnoff, as she considered the order, said, "If I am throwing 80 years of First Amendment jurisprudence on its head, so be it." She said the court's interest in maintaining the "integrity" of its docket trumped the First Amendment concern. We strongly believe Bartnoff's action harms the integrity of the court by placing process concerns over fundamental constitutional rights. Sadly, however, because of Bartnoff's order, we were forced to scrub this article of any reference to the agency. We apologize to our readers for being unable to provide the fullest report possible.

You can read the full story as published in this week's NLJ here: http://tinyurl.com/2c7oqoj

Prior restraint -- that is, a court telling a newspaper that it cannot publish a piece of information that it legally obtained -- is a serious matter.  It gets to the heart of what a free press is all about.  We intend to fight Judge Bartnoff's ruling not just because we want to publish the full story as originally written, but because her ruling raises fundamental first amendment questions that, as a newspaper publisher, we simply cannot allow to stand without argument.

Let's be clear -- our reporter, Jeff Jeffries, did a terrific job reporting on this story.  He obtained information by digging through open records, and he gave the subjects ample opportunity to confirm or correct the information he had obtained.  Both Jeff and the National Law Journal demonstrated their commitment to our Core Values, and now we need to support their efforts to publish the full story. 

To that end, this morning we filed an Emergency Appeal of the Temporary Restraining Order in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.  Our attorney, Bruce Brown of Baker & Hostetler in Washington, is awaiting word from the court on when we will receive a response.  I'll update this posting as soon as we hear any news.

Update (12:10):  The Blog of Legal Times just posted a good summary about the Emergency Appeal that we filed this morning.   http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/07/the-national-law-journal-files-appeal-in-first-amendment-fight.html

We truly appreciate all of the hard work you do during the year and Employee Appreciation Week is intended to recognize everyone's efforts. The foundation of our company is the great people that we employ -- that's what sets us apart from others. It's all too easy for us to get bogged down in our day to day tasks without taking the time out to say thank you and express sincere appreciation to our coworkers.

So please be sure to enjoy some of the activities that are planned for you. Full details on specific activities will be provided by HR in NY and by your local management teams.

Thank you.

People who talk about the future of media often refer to the role that editors will play as "curators" of content. The idea is that there is so much information available now that we need people we trust to help us sort the wheat from the chaff, to point the way toward the news that's important or most interesting to us.  Social networks now play that role as well -- we count on the people we follow or friend to tell us what they are reading and point us toward information that will interest us.  Flipboard helps organize that social media curation and present it in a more visually satisfying way.

For more information, go to http://www.flipboard.com/ and watch the video.   

http://www.alm.com/pressroom/2010/07/21/alm-acquires-verdict-research-group-inc/

We've been working with VRG for many years, licensing verdict and settlement information for use in our VerdictSearch database.  When the opportunity arose to buy the business, we jumped on it.  Doing so adds an additional 10 states to our coverage area, and allows us to add new products and services.  And it solidifies our position as one of the nation's leading providers of this valuable information, of particular use to trial lawyers and insurance companies.

Beyond that, I think this acquisition sends an important message about ALM.  We're serious about extending our reach in the substantive legal information arena, and we're willing to make investments that move us in that direction more quickly.  While I don't believe that we will be acquirers of large businesses anytime soon, we are certainly interested in smaller, more targeted acquisitions that help us create new products while adding value to existing ones, including our newspapers, websites and research products.  VRG certainly fits that description.

Ron Spinner, VerdictSearch's Publisher and Fabio Bertoni, our VP, Deputy General Counsel, worked together to bring this acquisition to a successful conclusion.  Ron will be heading up our integration efforts over the coming weeks as we bring VRG's databases, customer files and, of course, staff members, into the ALM family.

1.  As you know, ALM has been without a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) since we separated from Incisive Media last September 30th.  With our financial perrformance stabilizing during the first half of 2010 and the need to move faster to develop new products and integrate new technologies, our senior team has now concluded that the time has come to fill that spot.  I have now met with and retained a Recruiter to help us draft a job description and to find us the right person for this critical position.  Honestly, I don't know how long the process will take -- likely a few months -- but I hope to have a new CTO in place by the fall and having an impact on our business shortly thereafter.

2.  A number of us have been talking about Social Media and the ways in which it might be used to build connections to our audience and grow our business.  And we have quite a few individual and business experiments now going on with LinkedIn and Facebook Groups, Twitter feeds and both individual and group blogs.  All of that is terrific.  The time has now come to see if we can use social media in more organized and disciplined ways that lead to measurable results.  To get from here to there we have retained an agency -- Marketechnique -- which specializes in how companies use social media to build stronger relationships with their customers.  We'll likely start small, choosing a couple of market segments or brands so we can get comfortable with the process and learn how to apply it in our environment.  Anne Jackley in our Digital Media Group is managing the project for us, and I know that she will be working with many others around the company as we move this forward.  If you are interested, you can learn more about the work Marketechnique has done for others on their website http://www.marketechnique.com/. 

3.  Had several good discussions this week about developing a mobile strategy for the company, with Jill Windwer (Digital Media Group) and Esfand Pourmand (IT) helping us to navigate.  Just as a few years ago we talked about our web strategy and how to present information on the desktop, the time has now come to figure out what information we should be making available to the on-the-go professionals (lawyers, realtors, etc.) who rely on us for the information they need to succeed in their work.  Jill, Esfand and some of our editors and publishers will be working over the next few weeks to figure out how best to move forward, and to identify outside developers who can do the necessary programming once we decide what we want to offer to our audience.  

On that same subject, I was struck this week by two articles that crossed my desk.  In one, the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, noted in an interview that we need to start working toward "mobile first" strategies in the way that we currently think of "web first".  The interview with Schmidt can be found here: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-googles-schmidt-still-crazy-about-mobile/

The second article was published by our friends at ClickZ and is called "10 Tips for Creating a Winning Mobile Strategy". http://www.clickz.com/3640798.  I think we particularly need to take to heart the suggestion that "the mobile web isn't the mini-internet".  We need to think about what specific needs our audience would have while they are untethered and on-the-go, and then design mobile sites or apps which meet those needs.  There may be good reason to make an existing newspaper or magazine mobile accessible, but simply rescaling our existing websites for the smaller screen isn't going to be enough.

That's enough to think about on a summer Friday right before a long weekend.  I'm off on two weeks vacation, as far away from all things digital and electronic as I can get.  Wishing you all a wonderful 4th of July holiday.

Bill 

This morning I realized that not a single one of us in our little cluster was holding a newspaper or any other form of print media.  Some were holding Smart Phones.  A few had Kindles.  Two had iPads.  I was surprised and so were the others when I pointed it out, particularly since none of us would ever be mistaken for Silicon Valley leading edge technology types.

Maybe it means nothing.  Maybe my little commuter cluster is completely atypical of the rest of the world, where people still hold newspapers and magazines and books.  Or maybe I've just seen the proverbial "canary in the coal mine", telling me that something has really changed.  I don't know...

A few years ago I got into a Twitter debate with a group of people about when the last bit of physical media would be distributed.  That is, when all newspapers, magazines, books, music, video, movies etc. would cease to be distributed in physical form, and would only be downloadable as digital media.  Quite a few believed that the end of physical distribution would be by January 1, 2014.  I argued that that was preposterous -- that newspapers, for one, would certainly to be printed and delivered for at least another generation.  Print offers many advantages to digital, and I assumed that those advantages would remain in place for a long time to come.

This morning, standing on the train station platform looking at my cluster of commuting comrades, I began to think that maybe I had been on the wrong side of that debate.