Quirky Folks With Opinions
Kevin at Lexblog has a post on how blogs have caught on with larger law firms. I still see blogging as an individual endeavor. Along with the lack of a direct correlation between blogging and increased revenue, I think blogging is not much of a medium for larger law firms. The basic dynamic is that blogs take a tremendous amount of time to maintain. Law firm compensation is tied to time spent which brings in revenues (colloquially known as "billables"). Because blogging does not increase the bottom line in a way that is easy to measure, law firms are unlikely to compensate bloggers for blogging. (The same reason why they don't compensate lawyers for writing articles. It may increase your profile but most clients don't pay to read articles.) Partially as a result, law firm bloggers don't blog as frequently, their blogs are less off the cuff, and as a result not really must reads. (I almost get the sense that many law firm blogs post on a 3x/week schedule. Of course, smaller firm bloggers have their own problems in this regard.)
But there's another reason why blogging will not catch on at larger firms in the same way it does with smaller firms or with large firm lawyers who happen to have an interest in blogging. Blogging is all about the individual voice. A comment over at Lexblog sums it up well:
Competition in the blogosphere favors the quirky loner who happens to
have a knack for writing quickly and has something interesting to say . . . .
This is true. Apart from the fact that many of the AmLaw blogs have not been updated in a long time, most of the blogs are either run by groups or filtered through a group voice. They're not so quirky. They're less entertaining. Sure, you may read them to stay up to date on the latest legal developments, but there are only so many of those blogs you are likely to read. Apart from How Appealing, I would guess everyone has 2-5 blogs which they read to "stay up to date".
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch made this point (in the context of tech blogging) when talking about PaidContent v. Silicon Alley Insider:
PaidContent is someone reporting the news, and that is very useful,” he
said. “But Silicon Alley Insider is PaidContent with an op-ed edge. It
makes far more interesting reading because they are fighting and
trashing and getting enthusiastic. So the personalities really matter.
Then, of course, there's this: Why Blog? Reason No. 92: Book Deal (noting the discovery of the author of Stuff White People Like).
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