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NewsLine |
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Law | Business | Information | Research | Surveys |
January/February 2006 |
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ALM Research is a business
within ALM Media, Inc. separate from the
Editorial Division. ALM Research does not play a role in the surveys
published by ALM's publications such as The American Lawyer and The
National Law Journal, but works with the data from their surveys after it
is published. ALM Research conducts and publishes other independent research identified
as ALM Research products. NewsLine is a free bi-monthly electronic newsletter
published by ALM Research. If
you are receiving this issue as a forward and would like to become a subscriber,
please sign up
here. |
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In This Issue |
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Industry
News: Record-Setting Attendance for Web Audio Conference on Surveys |
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For
Your Information |
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There was a record-setting audience on January 10 for the
web audio conference sponsored by Law
Journal Newsletter (LJN) on the topic of "Attorney Listings, Directories,
and Surveys." There were 175 registrations for the two-hour discussion,
according to marketing manager Colin Graf. Graf also said that registrations
are for a location, rather than specific to an individual, and LJN's web
audio conferences average about three listeners per location. This means
there may have been as many as 500 or more in the audience. "It was by far
our largest audience yet," Graf said. (LJN is a division of ALM.) The topic: surveys, listings, directories, is very hot
right now because law firm marketing departments are approached more
frequently than ever about participating. Marketing managers are feeling
pressured to make good decisions about which to participate in, and how to
manage their participation in the ones they choose to be in. Nicole
Quigley, Public Relations Assistant Director at Crowell
& Moring, one of four panel participants, noted that her firm tracks
more than 125 surveys/listings, and the number of publishers and books
involved in them is continuing to grow. Quigley offered excellent advice on how to manage
participation, including working with the firm's IT department to build a
database to track information about each, the publication and contacts, name
of the survey/listing/report, its run date or date of publication, and so on.
She said that many problems associated with managing participation were due
to a lack of centralization and protocol, being unclear about who within the
firm needs to approve submissions, turnover of personnel, and not having a
depository for previous submissions or database of information about the
various lists and publishers. Quigley also advocated developing strong
relationships with the researchers, financial analysts and others related to
each survey or directory in order to minimize errors. Another panelist, Molly
Dawson Nunes from Wilmer
Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, addressed other problems, some of which
were: researchers who call the lawyers directly, so-called research companies
that send invoices for profiles never purchased, and European-based
publications which publish paid-for editorials without labeling them as
advertising. Nunes suggested that a strategy for managing the plethora of
possibilities for survey/listings participation would include decision-making
based on geography (many "Best of …" listings are based on regions and
cities); practice areas; client feedback if available; the reputation of the
research companies; and keeping a manageable workload. Other very useful
suggestions she offered were to negotiate the price, whether for advertising
or a listing; and sensibly re-purpose information that you worked hard to
compile. The other two panelists were from publishing companies
that do research and publish rankings, Rosemarie
Clancy, research editor for The
American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel,
and ALM's other national magazines; and Fionna
Boxall, managing editor, Chambers
and Partners. Clancy reviewed the survey reports published by ALM's
publications and how they are done, emphasizing the changes to the 2006
editorial calendar. Her recommendations for the law firm marketers were:
download and print out editorial calendars from each publication; look up the
previous year's survey online and read the methodology; and create generic
email addresses at the firm for important surveys (e.g. associates, laterals)
to avoid emailed invites going to employees no longer at the firm. Boxall opened her segment of the program by thanking
marketing people for their work in helping her company's research teams, and
then apologizing for increasing their workload. She spoke about best ways to
prepare information for the Chambers' listings, how to use the web forms, and
how to get a team or practice area included when it has not been ranked
previously. Elizabeth Lampert, of Elizabeth Lampert PR, is the Director of LJN's Web
Audio Division, and acted as moderator, fielding questions for 30 minutes at
the end of the program, which proved to be way too short. Hopefully, the
discussion will continue at conferences and association meetings. I, for one,
would like to see LJN do another session on the same topic soon. During her segment, Molly Nunes had dropped a few names of
publishing companies for which she gave a distinct thumbs-down. I'll refrain
from mentioning those here. However, when pressed by several in the audience
to name the top lists, the lists their firms felt they must be on, both Nunes
and Nicole Quigley singled out The American Lawyer's "A-List,"
as well as the Chambers and
Partners, PLC Publications,
and Legal 500 directories of best
lawyers and firms. Nunes also mentioned The
National Law Journal's NLJ250,
and Quigley mentioned The
Minority Law Journal's "Diversity
Scorecard" as the most important lists to be on. |
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§
In
this Issue |
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§
Industry
News: Record-Setting Attendance for Web Audio Conference |
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§
Editor's
Notes |
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