Hey Mom! I'm a Journalist. I guess!

My 4freeCLE Newsletter has several hundred subscribers now (not counting hundreds more on the Twitterfeed) so, in some sense, I'm a journalist now, covering the admittedly specialized area of free continuing legal education. It's a small beat, but a proud one!
I first published a newsletter back in high school, using a mimeograph with every word and drawing cut into a waxed-paper stencil, and every bit of ink squirted onto rollers that I cranked by hand, with my friend Martin Murphy and who-ever else was helping. How I wish I had those newsletters now! They were probably aweful, but they were awefully fun!
Now-a-days, I publish on the internet, via Constant Contact, blogspot and twitter. I'm ad-supported, just like many paper journals, and very very concerned that the content I provide my readers meets their needs, so they'll read more, pass it on to their friends, and click on the ads! I imagine it couldn't hurt to look at a few real journalists to see how they do it and pick up a few tips.
One thing about this style of journalism is that the ethics are intrinsic to the business model. I might get a tiny bump in readership if I posted a totally bullshit headline, but then the Golden Goose would be dead dead dead; everyone would unsubscribe, no-one would forward, and revenue would be zero. There's nothing at all wrong with a business model that requires ethical conduct, but it's worth pondering what it is about this market's structure that requires it - perhaps it's that customers find it infinitely easy to evaluate bullshit and to find alternative!
Here's last week's newsletter - I thought the Provider profiled is especially interesting:

4freeCLE: The Free CLE Newsletter! Feb 27, 2012

Share This With Your Peers!    Help out your colleagues and law school classmates by forwarding this newsletter - I Or, if you'd prefer to pass just a select few links, feel free to copy-and-paste from this newsletter; just be sure to give attribution to 4freeCLE!  Webinar CLE Be sure to pre-register for these, and test them with the computer system you intend to use. Don't find out the hard way whether your Android phone supports Go2Meeting!   Feb 27: Best Practices: Prior Art Search. By Legal Advantage. Improve Prior Art Searches to manage patent prosecutions more effective.   Feb 28: A Better Way to Do Business: The Competitive Advantages of Online Client Collaboration for Law Firms. By Lexis-Nexis.  Online collaboration, how to make your firm's website more than just a brochure. and technological and ethical considerations. Feb 28: Home Foreclosure Legal Aid Project training. By HFLAP. Also available in-person (Seattle).      Feb 29: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 - Part II. By Blue Cross/Blue Shield. ACA Implementation - changes already made and those anticipated through 2014. Mar 2: Unbundling Legal Service Delivery. By Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction. This is session 4 of "Topics In Digital Law Practice". Participants assume responsibility for applying for CLE credit.   Mar 8: Best Practices in Patent Illustration. By LegalAdvantage. How to generate top-quality first drafts. Mar 19: Ethics Essentials for Successful Online Legal Marketing. Free to ABA members. Ethics Credit!   On-Demand CLE These recordings are available anytime, for you and your colleagues, or even to show your clients! Age Discrimination in the Workplace: Senior Legal Issues. By Legal Aid Association of California. ADEA and other relevant law. Derivative Work. By Intellectual Property Colloquium. Harry Potter and The Unauthorized Encyclopedia.   When The Feds Knock On Your Door. By Trial.com. Best practices for corporations in an environment of whistleblowers and criminal prosecution.      In-Person CLE Unless stated otherwise, credit has been applied for in the state in which the program is located. Feb 28/NYC - Air Rights Deals: Buying, Selling and Transferring Development Rights. By Bank of America and MarcIsrael.com.   Feb 28/Seattle: Home Foreclosure Legal Aid Project training. By HFLAP. Also available as webinar.    Feb 29/Cleveland: Criminal Justice Forum IV - How to Reduce Crime by Releasing Prisoners. By Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Mar 1/NYC - New York Liquor Laws and Liquor Licensing. By Bank of America and MarcIsrael.com.    Mar 6/Boston: Family Law 102. By VLP. Mar 6/NYC: The Law of Prisoners' Rights. By The Legal Aid Society.  Mar 7/Cleveland, OH: From Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy to Medical Child Abuse: Shifting Focus to the Victim and Away from the Abuser. By Cleveland-Marshall.    Mar 7/Peoria, IL: Adoptions: 2012 Brown Bag Seminar. By Peoria County Bar Ass'n.    Mar 7/San Francisco: Social Security Eligibility Hearings. By ALRP. Mar 8/NYC: Child and spousal support - inMotion Training. By inMotion.    Mar 13/Salem, OR: Legal Aid/Pro Bono Cases with Attorney Fee Clauses. By Marion County Bar Association.   Mar 14/Minneapolis: New Volunteer Orientation. By Volunteer Lawyers Network. Mar 15/Minneapolis: Lessons for Litigators: The Critical Distinction Between Law and Policy. By University of St. Thomas.     Apr 25/Atlanta: Veterans Pro Bono Training. By Morris, Manning & Martin LLP and the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program. Previous training filled up months in advance, so apply now to ensure seating.

Provider Profile: The Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction This week we introduce an exceptional provider of free CLE: the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI). It must be stated at the outset that CALI did not necessarily set out to create CLE, yet its products in many cases are exceptional contributions to the free CLE space.   CALI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit consortium of over 200 US law schools. Among its products is "Topics In Digital Law Practice" (TDLP), a program takes a new approach to legal education. This nine-session webinar invites participant interaction and collaboration during and after each session! TDLP was developed originally for law faculty and students, but is of utility to lawyers and technologists as well, and open to any person anywhere. Each weekly, one-hour class is delivered via webcast and has an expert lecture followed by a question & answer period and an online, interactive homework assignment for all course students to complete. This interactivity offers an exceptional educational value; how often have you wanted to hang around after a CLE and talk things over with the other participants, but didn't because you had to rush off to some other business? The "homework" feature is a great innovation! Traditional CLE lectures fail educationally, because they do not require participants to process the imparted information into their own product. In contrast, producing homework requires attorneys to work through the lecture content and actually demonstrate understanding. Participants can skip this step, but those seeking CLE for the sake of education will use homework to make the experience far more effective. In addition, TDLP lectures are recorded and posted on the web, so you may review the material as often as you wish, far into the future - and share it with colleagues! Finally, each course includes a wiki and posts homework results. Participants can interact and network long after the live course. How much more useful is this than exchanging business cards!  Participant contributions show all other participants, and anyone on the web, how well they understand the material and may extend it!  CALI offers lawyers this exceptionally effective educational opportunity. The only hitch is that attorneys must assume responsibility for applying for credit with their own state. Surely this a bargain! Congratulations to CALI for offering such an important innovation in the field of Continuing Legal Education - even if you weren't exactly intending to! More: Center For Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI). Was This Issue Forwarded To You? Get Your Own Subscription For Free!  This is a free newsletter, delivered weekly.  Sign up for future issues for free!