Recorder Going Digital

One of the oldest legal newspapers in the United States is publishing its last issue today. San Francisco’s The Recorder, published since 1857, will exist only in digital format after today’s issue.

The newspaper’s owner, ALM, describes this as the “reinvention” of The Recorder and says it will “expand our news and enterprise coverage through our daily digital offering.”

The Recorder was a daily broadsheet until 2013, when ALM converted it to a weekly newspaper. The digital-only edition will launch Oct. 3.

Last July, ALM converted another of its regional newspapers, the weekly Connecticut Law Tribune, to digital only. (I served a stint as publisher of this newspaper.)

“Because of those shifting reader habits, and to better serve our audience, we’re excited to announce that the Connecticut Law Tribune will be shifting to a digital-first approach to covering the news come July,” Hank Grezlak, ALM regional editor-in-chief, wrote in announcing the change. “What does that mean? It means moving away from a weekly, print-centric focus, and producing stories more frequently and alerting our readers to them.”

In February, ALM converted InsideCounsel magazine from print to digital only. In April, it reduced the frequency of its Texas Lawyer newspaper from weekly to monthly.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.