Michael Ferguson

The concept of a legal blogging community is inspiring to me. Always has been. Back in the day, when law bloggers were bloggers, we got to know each other.  Virtual as it was, we had a bit of a community going.  We followed each other’s blogs, often with a news aggregator, commented on other’s blogs and “commented back” from our blog by saying our thing in response to what the other blogger wrote.  Blogging was how got to know each other. Blogging was how we learned about ourselves. Blogging was how we learned to be better lawyers. Blogging was how we connected with people. Who knew – real authentic conversation from the heart connected us with folks – in many cases, prospective clients.  Sometimes these virtual legal blogging communities formed around areas of practice, but often they formed by who we got to know as bloggers. No matter that a lawyer was doing energy law, they got to like the style of a white collar criminal defense lawyer and started to follow...

I was exchanging notes with a professional in the marketing, communications and publishing field who’s carved out a national reputation for her work. She’s blogged some in the past, but as she began again, she felt intimidated by that next post – you know what do I say, what do I teach, what’s the message, how do I get beyond looking at this blank screen. I suggested something that’s worked for me the last sixteen a years – as well for a lot of bloggers I learned from. Getting vulnerable, and to get comfortable in being vulnerable. Getting vulnerable in blogging works. Just share what you are reading/seeing, why you are sharing it and what you learned from it. You will “meet” the people whose items you share and draw a following of people who are attracted to an authentic voice who is sharing what they are learning and experiencing. Everyone wants to tell the world what they know. Especially lawyers.  But people want to see what you’re learning, what you’re thinking and who ...

As painful as it may be, and with the move comes declining ad revenue, eliminating a print edition may be the long term answer for most newspapers.   Today, as reported by the New York Times’ Monica Davey and John Eligon , The Chicago Defender, the newspaper, that told the story of black life in America, will print its final edition. “It took note of births and deaths, of graduations and weddings, of everything in between. Through eras of angst, its reporters dug into painful, dangerous stories, relaying grim details of lynchings, of clashes over school integration and of the shootings of black men by white police officers. Among a long list of distinguished bylines: Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks.”“ The Defender will continue its digital operation. Per Hiram Jackson , chief executive of Real Times Media, which owns The Defender, the move allows the organization to adapt to a “fast-changing, highly challenging media environment that has upended the entire newspaper indus...