Blog of the Month at the JLSS!
The Journal of the Law Society of Scotland (JLSS), which is published monthly, always lists a Blog of the Month.
I was leafing through the December edition of the JLSS yesterday morning after it arrived in the post.
To my surprise and delight, The Time Blawg is their Blog of the Month. In particular for the blog post: The Future of Legal Services: GenAI, Drills and Holes?
In selecting this post as Blog of the Month the JLSS says:
Brian Inkster is usually quick of the mark with legal tech, but he doesn’t necessarily go along with Richard Susskind’s view on how the future looks.
In a lengthy post following a talk by Susskind on the future of legal services, with particular reference to GenAI and ChatGPT, Inkster is considerably the more sceptical about the ability of ChatGPT either to get things right or to master the detail of what most lawyers do on a day-to-day basis. It seems an appropriate final choice of post, to let this debate run!
JLSS goes Digital
This edition is the last printed edition of the JLSS before it moves completely digital in January. It also marks Peter Nicholson’s retiral as Editor after 20 years in the role. Rebecca Morgan takes over the helm as Editor of the digital version. Peter has been an excellent editor and leaves big boots for Rebecca to fill.
I see the end of the printed version as a bit sad, as it is to see Peter retire. But whilst the latter is always inevitable should the former have been?
The Law Society of Scotland claim only a small number of their members chose to receive a print copy of the Journal when they reintroduced that option after the pandemic. They don’t say how many that actually is. I can’t recall being given the option after the pandemic but I must have been as I did, until the last one yesterday, receive the printed version.
I can’t help thinking that by not being able to leaf through it monthly I will miss information that I would otherwise have gleaned. Like I would probably have missed The Time Blawg being Blog of the Month in a digital version. Leafing through a digital publication is less convenient in many ways.
Since the digital JLSS became part of the Law Society of Scotland website it is a lot less easy to find things. The digital JLSS used to be stand alone. Bring that back I say, like The Law Society Gazette is in England & Wales.
And I do hope that Rebecca Morgan continues the Blog of the Month online in the digital version of the JLSS.
Reactions on Blog of the Month at the JLSS!
On LinkedIn the following comments have been made:-
Emma O’Day (Cashroom):
How strange Brian, I was just having this conversation yesterday about the journal. I suspect the challenge is how they continue to push the information out to ensure it still comes to you (removing the need to go search) and not bombarding too often so that it just becomes more ‘noise’ in our mailboxes and newsfeed. It was an inevitable change but I will miss leafing through the hard copy.
Me:
Don’t think it had to be an inevitable change. Looks like if the pandemic had never happened it might never have happened. There is apparently a consumer preference for printed material post pandemic. Of course whilst The Law Society of Scotland apparently asked members to opt in to printed immediately after the pandemic they don’t appear to have asked their members what they thought about a complete opt out for everyone! As usual decisions being taken in the ivory tower without any thought for what their members might actually think or want.
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Joe Reevy (Retired business guy & chartered accountant. Love to make things work better. Ethical, nonconformist, rational, creative, jocular: help good people. Despise elitism: call a spade a spade. Don’t take a lot seriously):
Brian Inkster is right.
Me:
Thanks Joe Reevy!
Joe Reevy:
Come on…back your prediction or the good prof…not hard, is it? Love your stuff.
Me:
Think plenty of my stuff you love backing my prediction! And more to come 🙂 https://thetimeblawg.com/chatbots/
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Joe Reevy (Retired business guy & chartered accountant. Love to make things work better. Ethical, nonconformist, rational, creative, jocular: help good people. Despise elitism: call a spade a spade. Don’t take a lot seriously):
Brian Inkster. Our clients who used paper newsletters always found them to be very profitable things to use. One remarked how common it was when going through a deceased client’s papers to find old newsletters with notes in the margin.
TBF you can target content far more precisely using electronic delivery of emails eh MailChimp )or indeed adding content to normal email traffic ( Crosselerator).
Me:
Thanks Joe Reevy. I think paper in addition to digital is all part of the marketing mix. It helps with one of the 7 touch points apparently needed.
Some people will prefer and be more tuned into digital than others. But even those that are comfortable with digital (and I would count myself in on that score) like to turn to paper from time to time for a necessary change of format.
The Kindle has not replaced paper books.
Interestingly whilst The Law Society of Scotland decided to go digital during the pandemic the sale of paper books soared: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58802805
I also wonder about the ‘Classifieds’ section in the Journal and if that will just vanish or end up lost within a digital version?
Joe Reevy:
Not sure if I am onboard with ideas like ‘7 touch points’ ( I think thinking like that is both restrictive and simplistic as is virtually everything I see tbf) but I take the general principle.As regards Kindles, I got one about 8 years ago, but scrapped it last week. I much prefer books and the feel of page turning. If I need to read and have no book, my pad device has access to our Kindle account and does the job perfectly well. Mrs R lives her Kindle….
Me:
It is a marketing thing which seems fairly entrenched in the world of marketers (although sometimes the number varies slightly) but maybe they just want us to be buying more marketing spots! 😉 Sometimes seeing something once is more than enough for me. But I get how you might need to see an advert a few times in different places for it to really start to register.
I’ve never had a Kindle but have at times thought about getting one. But then I always have a pile of books on hand that I still have to read so feel the need to get through those first!
My wife has a Kindle but only seems to ever use it if we are on holiday preferring paper over digital at home.