May 2003

Still Standing

by Lindsay Thompson

"How could they tell?"
Dorothy Parker, on hearing news that President Coolidge had died (1933).

Washington Journal died last October and I didn't hear about it until one of its former staffers e-mailed me a few weeks ago, seeking freelance work. Like Mrs. Parker, I wasn't sure how they could tell.

WJ was a tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Journal Corporation of Los Angeles. Figuring —like another cloner of the time, the Lawyers Weekly newspaper chain-that one size would fit all states, WJ tried wrapping a wisp of local content around its LA-based copy and stormed north just after another entrant, Minnesota Law, cloned itself, called itself Washington Law, and went broke.
 
Well-bankrolled, WJ launched at the state Bar convention, sponsoring a luncheon event Bar News had to buy a ticket to cover. They got WSBA's president to wave a copy in the air and tell the assembled members it looked like a fine new paper they should all sign up for. They had a big booth in the exhibition hall. WJ got a sitting member of the Board of Governors to write a column on BOG meetings. Their main claim was having case-law summaries out before the Advance Sheets did, but over time the Internet wore down that competitive advantage. The rest was copy from their other papers, wire-service features, and a cover page with two or three Washington items. For a few years they were the big deal in our little marketplace of ideas. Then they seemed to drift out of sight. No one talked about the paper; you didn't see it around much.

In October 2001 WJ closed their Seattle office and stopped publishing, but kept the paper's Internet version going. "It had proven a very unprofitable venture for us," WJ's editor said in an interview. "Our publishers have not been very bottom-line oriented and have been willing to keep unprofitable ventures going if they were providing a service to the community, but we were losing subscribers and readers in Seattle. We felt that the support of the readership wasn't there and what it would take to get it back was really more than it was prudent for us to invest at this point." A year later, last October, the Internet version was shut down, too.

I expect the handwriting had been on the wall for a while. In 1997 WJ contacted the Board of Governors and proposed buying Bar News, promising to include some of its content in their paper in return for getting their mitts on your addresses. Unlike another 1981 buyout proposal the Bar News Editorial Advisory Board rejected out of hand, the Board of Governors actually considered doing it. Fortunately, the idea eventually went away, and, in due course, so did Washington Journal. Commercial publications may have more resources, look flashier, and pay lots of staff writers for shiny copy, but when they aren't making money they bail out. Had the WSBA made the deal, we'd be SOL now.

By contrast, Bar News may seem sort of boring and it may not manage to find the right mix of articles to satisfy every taste every month, but it's always there. It costs only a few bucks a month out of our licensing fees, and covers its direct costs because Jack Young, who has been advertising manager for 11 years, is brilliant at winning advertisers. He gets too little credit for his work, and I am glad to be able to shine the spotlight his way in this space.

For a long time the WSBA starved Bar News, pooh-poohing things like money for cover and inside art, and spot color, as trendy fripperies, then complaining later on when members said the magazine looked boring and dated. More recently, WSBA Executive Director Jan Michels and Member and Community Relations Director Judy Berrett have given Bar News the staff and resources, and Managing Editor Amy Hines provides the wise eye for design and layout, to realize its current professional look and feel. I am grateful to them for giving me a lot of rope to run with as editor. The BOG's current oversight committee, chaired by President-elect David Savage, has people on it who actually like Bar News. In April we looked at models for an all-member reader survey. If we can get the funding for it, we'll have the opportunity to ask all of you what you like about Bar News, and what you'd like to see that's not here now.

The committee also recognizes Bar News' core value: it's our magazine, WSBA members' magazine. Virtually all the copy in every issue is by WSBA members and about the law we practice. Bar News is the only publication for all WSBA members, all the time, and no one else. It has been that way since 1935. Not much glamour, but plenty of professional debate, fellowship and practical content. I hope that will never change.

Lindsay Thompson edited Bar News from 1988 to 1995 and returned in December 2002. Friends call him the Grover Cleveland of Bar News editors. You can reach him at tradelaw@thompson-law.com.

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