7/12/06

Now in its seventh year of operation, the State Bar of Michigan daily electronic e-Journal publication is still getting rave reviews from member subscribers. It has been described as "the single best service provided to its members by the Bar." A recent online readership survey found that 99 percent of e-Journal subscribers find the summaries helpful to their practice, and of those, 77 percent use them to stay current in their preferred area of practice.

The e-Journal updates the legal profession daily on changes in the law and summarizes opinions to help attorneys stay up-to-date with the law as it emerges from the courts. To date, more than 27,000 appellate and district court opinions and orders have been summarized.

Survey highlights also show the following:

• 73 percent read the e-Journal on a daily basis and another 21 percent read it several times a week. Fewer than 6 percent of the subscribers read the publication once a week or less.
• 50 percent of subscribers have been reading the e-Journal for more than five years.
• 93 percent of the subscribers consider the length of the summaries to be just right, and 97 percent read the full-text opinions after reading the summaries.
• 87 percent of readers are interested in the development of an online searchable index of past summaries.
• Besides the summaries, members also read News from the Bar (21 percent), Public Policy (13 percent), Classifieds (14 percent), Fields of Practice and In Memoriam (11 percent).

Staff and members of the Publications and Website Advisory Committee will be assessing readership comments for future enhancements to the publication. Specific areas that will be addressed include building a searchable index of past summaries and re-evaluating content offerings and delivery options for reaching a wider segment of members.

The e-Journal currently goes to 17,000 member subscribers free of charge. A total of 1,634 completed the questionnaire online for an overall response rate of 9.6 percent. To subscribe to the e-Journal, visit http://www.michbar.org/publications/signup.cfm.