Page 201 - Leaders in Legal Business - PDF - Final 2018
P. 201
not have been possible.
Publishers like Practical Law, which bring real efficiencies to the table, sit squarely with
the growing band of disruptors that are helping to drive change in the legal market (e.g., new
model law firms such as Axiom Law,1 legal process outsourcers (LPOs), and the plethora of e-
discovery providers).
As the legal market evolves and the players find their places on the value chain, there will
inevitably be competitive tensions between publishers and their largest clients: law firms.
Publishers providing powerful but easy-to-use research platforms or automated suites of
contracts will rub up against law firms that have not yet embraced change and are focused on
what they can do beyond the commoditized and vanilla. The relationships between publishers
and LPOs will be interesting to watch as well. LPOs, while offering efficiencies in many areas
over law firms or in-house legal teams, currently offer services to clients in some areas where a
publisher would instinctively want to offer a product to a much larger set of clients at a lower
rate.
Globalization
The continued globalization of international markets and business is another powerful
force that is having a major impact on the legal market. In-house counsel at multinational firms
must stay on top of an ever-multiplying set of laws and regulations in a growing number of
countries. This increasingly complex and interconnected global regulatory environment has seen
law firms forge alliances or open offices across the globe. Often deterred by the multitude of
languages that prevent economies of scale, publishers have been slow to follow, covering
developments in smaller jurisdictions at a relatively high level. This is something that technology
will surely address in the foreseeable future.
Revenue Models
With the exception of those focused on news and opinion journalism, legal publishers
have not been beset by the challenges facing the wider newspaper and magazine industry as it
grapples with declining advertising revenues and customers’ reluctance to go behind the paywall
in a world where so much information online is free. Newspapers are focusing on high-quality,
often long-form journalism to build loyalty with readers and convince them to use their credit
cards. This is exactly the kind of content on which legal publishers have focused.
Those with a co-publishing, financed content model generally ensure that their projects
are financially underwritten in advance. They may be free to air, require registration, or require a
subscription fee from one or more classes of user, but branded content has long flourished in the
legal sector and looks set to continue, especially given the importance of content marketing to
law firms.
As publishing has moved online, expectations around advertising have changed greatly.
No longer can publishers simply quote readership numbers based on a multiple applied print
runs. Advertisers are seeking highly targeted opportunities and real-time analytics on usage.
Those that fail to deliver will be left behind.
There is increased competition from outside the sector from the likes of LinkedIn and
Google, which can target users in the way that previously only a trade publisher could.
1 AXIOM LAW, http://www.axiomlaw.com.
187
Publishers like Practical Law, which bring real efficiencies to the table, sit squarely with
the growing band of disruptors that are helping to drive change in the legal market (e.g., new
model law firms such as Axiom Law,1 legal process outsourcers (LPOs), and the plethora of e-
discovery providers).
As the legal market evolves and the players find their places on the value chain, there will
inevitably be competitive tensions between publishers and their largest clients: law firms.
Publishers providing powerful but easy-to-use research platforms or automated suites of
contracts will rub up against law firms that have not yet embraced change and are focused on
what they can do beyond the commoditized and vanilla. The relationships between publishers
and LPOs will be interesting to watch as well. LPOs, while offering efficiencies in many areas
over law firms or in-house legal teams, currently offer services to clients in some areas where a
publisher would instinctively want to offer a product to a much larger set of clients at a lower
rate.
Globalization
The continued globalization of international markets and business is another powerful
force that is having a major impact on the legal market. In-house counsel at multinational firms
must stay on top of an ever-multiplying set of laws and regulations in a growing number of
countries. This increasingly complex and interconnected global regulatory environment has seen
law firms forge alliances or open offices across the globe. Often deterred by the multitude of
languages that prevent economies of scale, publishers have been slow to follow, covering
developments in smaller jurisdictions at a relatively high level. This is something that technology
will surely address in the foreseeable future.
Revenue Models
With the exception of those focused on news and opinion journalism, legal publishers
have not been beset by the challenges facing the wider newspaper and magazine industry as it
grapples with declining advertising revenues and customers’ reluctance to go behind the paywall
in a world where so much information online is free. Newspapers are focusing on high-quality,
often long-form journalism to build loyalty with readers and convince them to use their credit
cards. This is exactly the kind of content on which legal publishers have focused.
Those with a co-publishing, financed content model generally ensure that their projects
are financially underwritten in advance. They may be free to air, require registration, or require a
subscription fee from one or more classes of user, but branded content has long flourished in the
legal sector and looks set to continue, especially given the importance of content marketing to
law firms.
As publishing has moved online, expectations around advertising have changed greatly.
No longer can publishers simply quote readership numbers based on a multiple applied print
runs. Advertisers are seeking highly targeted opportunities and real-time analytics on usage.
Those that fail to deliver will be left behind.
There is increased competition from outside the sector from the likes of LinkedIn and
Google, which can target users in the way that previously only a trade publisher could.
1 AXIOM LAW, http://www.axiomlaw.com.
187
