Media & Communications: Become the Newsroom

The word “newsroom” conjures up familiar images: the crusty cigar-chomping editor, the hard-charging reporter, the ink-stained production chief. Clich's, sure, but they didn't used to be terribly far off base. Until relatively recently, newsrooms were bustling places ' full of characters and always animated by the relentless pressure of the almighty deadline.

Not anymore. Today's newsroom is more likely a skeleton crew of editors in a sterile office tower. Often as not, reporting is outsourced. Freelancers work remotely, blogging and tweeting from a home office in their pajamas. The Internet, of course, changed everything. Online content crippled magazines' subscription bases, and Craigslist torpedoed the economic engine of the newspaper: classified advertising. These are unfortunate developments for the romance of the news business, but they're good news for law firms.

Why Good News?

Firms and lawyers have the opportunity to drive and shape editorial content as never before, in the process carving out customized niches for themselves and their practices. The problem is, too few of them fully understand the opportunity, or possess the necessary internal capacity to produce high-quality editorial content.

With focus, commitment and strategy, however, law firms can step in to fill gaps in the current media landscape, providing timely, insightful content that provides real value to existing and prospective clients. They just need a bit of guidance.

More Publication Opportunities

Newspapers and magazines don't look much different than the old days ' a bit skinnier, perhaps ' but the way they fill their pages has undergone a fundamental transformation during the past decade.

Publications that once prided themselves on producing all their own content are now forced to look to a variety of more affordable sources, including blogs, third-party content aggregators and an ever-growing list of unpaid contributors. Factor in the proliferation of online publications that have no space constraints and are always hungry for fresh copy, and there are more publishing opportunities for law firms than ever.

This, of course, presents a great chance for lawyers to raise their public profile. The challenge is standing out in a media world that is both more crowded and more diffuse than it used to be, and that's not easy.

Lawyers have a lot of things in their favor as writers, most notably experience, intelligence and expertise. Make no mistake, all professional ethical considerations regarding particular words aside, expertise is precisely what lawyers should showcase when they write for publication. Demonstrating mastery of specialized legal issues and delivering insightful analysis is the whole point.

Despite their professional attributes, however, most lawyers must overcome a number of obstacles in order to write effective articles ' most of which have to do with the fact that they are lawyers. It's not that lawyers are bad writers. They're adept at drafting documents that are logically sound, rhetorically consistent and legally prudent. Unfortunately, these tend to read more like contractual boilerplates than magazine articles.

That's not a knock. Writing for publication is a craft that takes years to master, and it's unreasonable to expect anyone to get it right the first time out. There are, however, some rules of thumb that can smooth the learning curve.

Tricks of the Trade

First and foremost, when writing an article, always start with the end in mind. That means working through a number of basic but critical questions, including: Who is the target audience? What is the core message? And what is the desired outcome? This sounds straightforward enough, but far too often, lawyers write with their peers, not their clients, in mind.

If the ultimate goal is to bring in new business, any writing effort must be client-focused. Whether the prospective client is a general counsel, a small business owner or the CEO of a Fortune 100 company, the writer must somehow speak directly to their concerns, be they anxieties over new risks or desires to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

Lawyers also must fight the learned tendency to equivocate. Covering all contingencies is a fundamental part of legal training, but it doesn't make for strong prose. Left to their own devices, many lawyers will turn a strong point into a string of conditions and qualifications that obliterate the power of the thought. Context, not qualification, is the key to delivering a clear takeaway. Leading with colorful examples, whether factual or hypothetical, is one tack. Embrace the fact that at the heart of every legal story is some form of conflict. The better that writers can describe that tension, the more compelling their story will be.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for lawyers who write for publication is the question of voice. Whether as a matter of taste or training, most lawyers write in a tone that can only be called lawyerly ' conservative, precise and dry. The best lawyer-writers, however, let their personalities shine through.

A large percentage of legal services are fungible. The biggest service differentiators are the law firm's culture and the subjective experience, expertise and personality of individual lawyers. When writing shows something of the lawyer's sensibility and style, it's far more likely to make an impression. You'll never connect with everyone, but if you can be yourself in print, you'll connect with the audience that best fits you, and your practice.

Everyone Needs an Editor

Writing is like acting in that people tend to underestimate just how much goes into it. After all, everybody writes constantly. The fact is, writing for publication is hard work. It takes time, skill, experience and most important, collaboration. Every writer needs an editor, and this is the function that most law firms lack. Conceiving an article, positioning it for optimal strategic value and working through revisions takes more than one trained eye. Internal marketing staff members are already pulled in too many directions, and publications are too overtaxed to provide much outside editorial guidance. It's the perfect storm.

The advantage of new media is that anyone can be a content creator ' a process that must be taken seriously to be effective. The vast majority of law firm articles fall short of the mark because firms lack the editorial sophistication required to effectively deliver strategic messages to target audiences. Like any form of expertise, if you don't have it, you have to hire it.

For small firms, this could be as modest as occasionally hiring the services of an experienced editor on an hourly or project basis. Large firms with broad publishing ambitions would be well served to hire dedicated editorial staff. In essence, firms need to create their own newsrooms, where editorial staff and lawyers collaborate on strategy, style and positioning.

This is no small task, certainly. But for firms committed to taking control of their media presence and public image, it's a logical and forward-thinking approach. The good news is, it's a buyers' market for editorial talent. There are plenty of unemployed journalists out there these days.

Steven Andersen is Infinite Public Relations' director of editorial services. He was a journalist and professional writer for 19 years, principally covering the legal and energy sectors. He can be reached at 212-687-0935 or [email protected]. Nicholas Gaffney, a lawyer, former journalist and a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a founding partner of Infinite Public Relations. He directs the firm's San Francisco office. Reach him at [email protected].

The word “newsroom” conjures up familiar images: the crusty cigar-chomping editor, the hard-charging reporter, the ink-stained production chief. Clich's, sure, but they didn't used to be terribly far off base. Until relatively recently, newsrooms were bustling places ' full of characters and always animated by the relentless pressure of the almighty deadline.

Not anymore. Today's newsroom is more likely a skeleton crew of editors in a sterile office tower. Often as not, reporting is outsourced. Freelancers work remotely, blogging and tweeting from a home office in their pajamas. The Internet, of course, changed everything. Online content crippled magazines' subscription bases, and Craigslist torpedoed the economic engine of the newspaper: classified advertising. These are unfortunate developments for the romance of the news business, but they're good news for law firms.

Why Good News?

Firms and lawyers have the opportunity to drive and shape editorial content as never before, in the process carving out customized niches for themselves and their practices. The problem is, too few of them fully understand the opportunity, or possess the necessary internal capacity to produce high-quality editorial content.

With focus, commitment and strategy, however, law firms can step in to fill gaps in the current media landscape, providing timely, insightful content that provides real value to existing and prospective clients. They just need a bit of guidance.

More Publication Opportunities

Newspapers and magazines don't look much different than the old days ' a bit skinnier, perhaps ' but the way they fill their pages has undergone a fundamental transformation during the past decade.

Publications that once prided themselves on producing all their own content are now forced to look to a variety of more affordable sources, including blogs, third-party content aggregators and an ever-growing list of unpaid contributors. Factor in the proliferation of online publications that have no space constraints and are always hungry for fresh copy, and there are more publishing opportunities for law firms than ever.

This, of course, presents a great chance for lawyers to raise their public profile. The challenge is standing out in a media world that is both more crowded and more diffuse than it used to be, and that's not easy.

Lawyers have a lot of things in their favor as writers, most notably experience, intelligence and expertise. Make no mistake, all professional ethical considerations regarding particular words aside, expertise is precisely what lawyers should showcase when they write for publication. Demonstrating mastery of specialized legal issues and delivering insightful analysis is the whole point.

Despite their professional attributes, however, most lawyers must overcome a number of obstacles in order to write effective articles ' most of which have to do with the fact that they are lawyers. It's not that lawyers are bad writers. They're adept at drafting documents that are logically sound, rhetorically consistent and legally prudent. Unfortunately, these tend to read more like contractual boilerplates than magazine articles.

That's not a knock. Writing for publication is a craft that takes years to master, and it's unreasonable to expect anyone to get it right the first time out. There are, however, some rules of thumb that can smooth the learning curve.

Tricks of the Trade

First and foremost, when writing an article, always start with the end in mind. That means working through a number of basic but critical questions, including: Who is the target audience? What is the core message? And what is the desired outcome? This sounds straightforward enough, but far too often, lawyers write with their peers, not their clients, in mind.

If the ultimate goal is to bring in new business, any writing effort must be client-focused. Whether the prospective client is a general counsel, a small business owner or the CEO of a Fortune 100 company, the writer must somehow speak directly to their concerns, be they anxieties over new risks or desires to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

Lawyers also must fight the learned tendency to equivocate. Covering all contingencies is a fundamental part of legal training, but it doesn't make for strong prose. Left to their own devices, many lawyers will turn a strong point into a string of conditions and qualifications that obliterate the power of the thought. Context, not qualification, is the key to delivering a clear takeaway. Leading with colorful examples, whether factual or hypothetical, is one tack. Embrace the fact that at the heart of every legal story is some form of conflict. The better that writers can describe that tension, the more compelling their story will be.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for lawyers who write for publication is the question of voice. Whether as a matter of taste or training, most lawyers write in a tone that can only be called lawyerly ' conservative, precise and dry. The best lawyer-writers, however, let their personalities shine through.

A large percentage of legal services are fungible. The biggest service differentiators are the law firm's culture and the subjective experience, expertise and personality of individual lawyers. When writing shows something of the lawyer's sensibility and style, it's far more likely to make an impression. You'll never connect with everyone, but if you can be yourself in print, you'll connect with the audience that best fits you, and your practice.

Everyone Needs an Editor

Writing is like acting in that people tend to underestimate just how much goes into it. After all, everybody writes constantly. The fact is, writing for publication is hard work. It takes time, skill, experience and most important, collaboration. Every writer needs an editor, and this is the function that most law firms lack. Conceiving an article, positioning it for optimal strategic value and working through revisions takes more than one trained eye. Internal marketing staff members are already pulled in too many directions, and publications are too overtaxed to provide much outside editorial guidance. It's the perfect storm.

The advantage of new media is that anyone can be a content creator ' a process that must be taken seriously to be effective. The vast majority of law firm articles fall short of the mark because firms lack the editorial sophistication required to effectively deliver strategic messages to target audiences. Like any form of expertise, if you don't have it, you have to hire it.

For small firms, this could be as modest as occasionally hiring the services of an experienced editor on an hourly or project basis. Large firms with broad publishing ambitions would be well served to hire dedicated editorial staff. In essence, firms need to create their own newsrooms, where editorial staff and lawyers collaborate on strategy, style and positioning.

This is no small task, certainly. But for firms committed to taking control of their media presence and public image, it's a logical and forward-thinking approach. The good news is, it's a buyers' market for editorial talent. There are plenty of unemployed journalists out there these days.

Steven Andersen is Infinite Public Relations' director of editorial services. He was a journalist and professional writer for 19 years, principally covering the legal and energy sectors. He can be reached at 212-687-0935 or [email protected]. Nicholas Gaffney, a lawyer, former journalist and a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is a founding partner of Infinite Public Relations. He directs the firm's San Francisco office. Reach him at [email protected].