Editorial Guidelines

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2011 Law Technology News Editorial Guidelines

Law Technology News magazine welcomes press releases about new products and services, as well as proposals for bylined articles. We hope these guidelines will assist you in preparing materials for submission.

Click here for the 2012 editorial calendar.

The Basics

All press releases should offer a clear, thorough description of your product or service. If your product or service is not legal specific, it is helpful to tell us how it is applicable to legal environments. If it is an upgrade, be sure to provide information about the underlying product and advise us about key features of the upgrade.

Please note: We do not run "raw" press releases. Our product coverage is written by our reporters and editors. All press releases must be published on the company's website, with an available URL (not just downloadable PDFs links) to be considered for coverage.

Photo Requirements

Include a color photo for all hardware submissions, such as products intended for our mobile lawyer category. All product images must have a white background, and be shot in high resolution (at least 300 dpi) in .tiff or .jpg format. (Don't send large files that are 72 resolution). Label the image with your company name, and the name of the person or product.

For People items, please send a color head shot. We highly recommend "go to court" business attire, i.e., a tie and jacket for men, and equivalent attire for women, however we will accept business casual photos (if not too casual). Photos must be shot against a neutral (but not white) background, preferably grey. They must be 300 dpi.

Deadlines

We accept press releases 365/24/7, but only via e-mail (no fax or snail mail). Except under unusual situations, we no longer accept embargoed releases. We will not sign non-disclosure agreements. Send releases to lawtech@alm.com. Please do not flag your e-mail as high priority.

Less is Not More

Be sure to give us plenty of detail about your product -- if the press release is too succinct, you may get less coverage than you deserve. All press releases must have a URL on the company's site to be considered, however, don't expect us to retrieve the release from your website.

Essential Information

Your press release must also contain the release date of the product/service, the full corporate name of the company, website URL, and contact persons with phone numbers. To protect our readers against sham companies, releases without full contact information will not be considered.

What We Cover

It's a good idea to carefully read LTN before submitting press releases, to get a feel for what we cover. Most product and services news will be reported on our website, such as launches of products and services, and upgrades; people; partnerships, alliances, mergers and acquisitions between vendors; "done deals" (sales to legal organizations); and upcoming continuing education programs. We don't cover (with occasional exceptions) awards from competing publications; certifications; company financing (except on EDD Update); internal training programs; etc.

LTN Directory

Our colleagues on business-side will soon be launching a new LTN Directory where vendors may post press releases, which will also offer premium features. (Contact Scott Pierce spierce@alm.com for information about the directory services. (Editorial is not involved with the directory).

Verification

Please do not routinely call us to ask if we have received your press release. But if you have reason to believe there has been a problem, feel free to call and we will assist you.

Email Tip

It's best to include your press release in the body of the e-mail. If you send a press release as an e-mail attachment, be sure it is properly labeled with your company name, as the attachments frequently get separated. We do not accept non-editable PDFs files, and we prefer .doc rather than .docx.

Plain English

LTN is committed to presenting information in a manner that is easily accessible to our readers. We avoid industry acronyms, jargon, and clichés, because we believe this language obfuscates rather than enhances understanding. For example, the words "solution" and "revolutionary" have become meaningless. Other words we routinely edit out: deploy, mission critical, enterprise, strategic, robust, implement, seamless, initiative, enterprise, -centric, strategic, and form factor!

Bylined Articles

If you are interested in writing for LTN, please e-mail a brief query letter to lawtech@alm.com. We have an editorial calendar and specific guidelines for bylined articles. Note: We do not accept vendor bylines, because our readers perceive them to be advertorials. We do accept vendor bylines for our Green Law column, if the author is writing about the company's internal programs, not its products.

Again, thanks for your interest in LTN!

-- David Snow, Editorial Director, ALM Technology

-- Monica Bay, Editor in Chief, LTN Magazine

-- Sean Doherty, Technology Editor