Paywalls, Secret Gardens and the death of an American Lawyer

I’m deep in the research phase of my new book – a story about art, architecture, murder and the trial of the century. Actually it covers two major trials that involved New York County District Attorney William Traverse Jerome.

I’ve read hundreds of articles in an effort to fully understand the legal system that supported the gilded age and enabled New York City to rise as the greatest city in the world. My amazing discovery has been that in the last two years many newspaper publishers have digitized their archives allowing anyone access to a virtual worldwide library.

The sad part of the discovery is that I haven’t stumbled across one article or image from The New York Law Journal, The National Law Journal or The American Lawyer. I worked for ALM, the parent company of those publications, so I know the reason why – all their archives are walled off behind a paywall in an effort to generate revenue for the company’s sagging print media business.

I discovered this while I was still an ALM employee and researching my first book, Stonewall to Obama. I asked my boss at the time if I could have access to the company’s archives which were housed over at Lexis Nexis. I suggested that an image of each article be allowed outside of the paywall as a teaser for lay people doing research like me. If the viewer really wanted access to the article, they then could pay a one time fee – sort of like an a la carte menu. Sadly, my boss left the company and nothing was ever done about this.

The issue is indicative of a larger one in B2B publishing and that is the all too pervasive idea that B2B and B2C are seperate worlds that never intersect. I’m living proof that there are consumers that would willing pay for B2B information if they’d only let down the paywall, even temporarily.

You can read Stonewall to Obama here.