Lexis was the first legal research product to offer a news database to lawyers when they created Nexis in 1980. They were the first to offer newsfeeds when they introduced “eclipse” in 1984. They took an early stab at creating a news aggregation platform when they introduced LexisNexis Publisher in 2000. They have strengthened their position in the legal market with a series of strategic news alliances ( Wall Street Journal, New York Times and American Lawyer Media publications) and the acquisition of the Law360 newsletters.
Moreover. Last October they announced the acquisition of a news aggregation platform called Moreover. Next month the Moreover platform will be re-launched after the addition of LexisNexis content and rebranded as LexisNexis Newsdesk. Lexis Nexis news is in the process of being added to the Moreover news database before the launch. Factiva, Law360, Court Link and other Lexis content will be added in the third quarter of this year. They will be also offering NewsDesk on a Mobile App.
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| The LexisNexis NewsDesk Dashboard |
From Abstracts to Analytics. I
have watched the delivery of digital news morph from primitive beginnings. In 1983 the New York Times Infobank was at the cutting edge by offering dial up access to news “abstracts.” (That’s right, no full text – you got a citation and a summary –then you
had to locate a copy of the actual newspaper to read the full story.) We have
come a long way…. The Lexis Nexis NewsDesk is a
gob-smacking, marvel of interactive features and functions. News aggregation is on the cusp of evolving
from offering very sophisticated news curation and personalized delivery to a new tier of offering
“news as a living and interactive source of insights and analytics.”
have watched the delivery of digital news morph from primitive beginnings. In 1983 the New York Times Infobank was at the cutting edge by offering dial up access to news “abstracts.” (That’s right, no full text – you got a citation and a summary –then you
had to locate a copy of the actual newspaper to read the full story.) We have
come a long way…. The Lexis Nexis NewsDesk is a
gob-smacking, marvel of interactive features and functions. News aggregation is on the cusp of evolving
from offering very sophisticated news curation and personalized delivery to a new tier of offering
“news as a living and interactive source of insights and analytics.”
Although
NewsDesk will be a “stand alone” product
like Lexis Nexis Publisher, it will only be available to Lexis subscribers, for an additional subscription fee.
Lexis will continue to offer news libraries to
legal product subscribers. but these will lack the functionality and
analytics available in the Newsdesk platform. They are clearly
positioning the product to compete with independent aggregators such as Ozmosys,
Manzama, InfoNgen. Attensa and Linex.
Content Includes
•
LexisNexis
licensed news sources, including exclusives like Factiva, The Wall Street
Journal, The New York Times, ALM and more.
LexisNexis
licensed news sources, including exclusives like Factiva, The Wall Street
Journal, The New York Times, ALM and more.
•
Coverage
across 55,000 editorially-maintained Web-based news sources from 150 countries
in 75 languages.
Coverage
across 55,000 editorially-maintained Web-based news sources from 150 countries
in 75 languages.
•
Key
social media sites including blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube
and more.
Key
social media sites including blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube
and more.
•
National,
cable and local TV broadcast video clips and associated transcripts.
National,
cable and local TV broadcast video clips and associated transcripts.
•
Third
party premium content based on subscribers licenses.
Third
party premium content based on subscribers licenses.
Tools
•
Near-real-time
media monitoring with over 2,500 new links added per minute – categorized and
searchable.
Near-real-time
media monitoring with over 2,500 new links added per minute – categorized and
searchable.
•
Powerful
search filters to quickly refine results.
Powerful
search filters to quickly refine results.
•
User-friendly
interface with a personalized dashboard, on-demand updates and searching
– available for admins and end-users.
User-friendly
interface with a personalized dashboard, on-demand updates and searching
– available for admins and end-users.
•
Curated
and automated email delivery options, including alerts and fully branded
newsletters.
Curated
and automated email delivery options, including alerts and fully branded
newsletters.
•
Flexible
export formats (RSS, Atom, etc.) to integrate news on an internal webpage or
portal, like SharePoint.
Flexible
export formats (RSS, Atom, etc.) to integrate news on an internal webpage or
portal, like SharePoint.
•
Advanced
media analytics for deeper insights with many charting options and full data
download to Excel.
Advanced
media analytics for deeper insights with many charting options and full data
download to Excel.
•
Platform
can manage both personal curated content and aggregated content for groups.
Platform
can manage both personal curated content and aggregated content for groups.
Really Cool Tools and Unique Features
I
have only seen a demo and I haven’t used the product myself but I am a sucker
for products which offer intuitive interactivity and rich analytics. Here are the features
which really caught my attention.
have only seen a demo and I haven’t used the product myself but I am a sucker
for products which offer intuitive interactivity and rich analytics. Here are the features
which really caught my attention.
- Newsfeeds
include video clips from news broadcasts - Video clips
include transcripts - Foreign language
stories are automatically translated into English - Semantic tools
provide sentiment analysis allowing you to focus on negative or positive
stories on a subject - Sentiment can be
graphed! - Word clouds,
time trends - The relevancy
slider. Each story is scored by relevance and you can adjust relevance to
increase or reduce the search results using a sliding bar.
Location Location Location
One
of my big gripes about the loss of access to “native Factiva” was the granularity of
Factiva indexing. The deal Lexis Nexis struck with Dow Jones in 2005 which ended law firms’
ability to subscribe directly to either Factiva or to get corporate accounts for the
Wall Street Journal. Factiva was loaded into Nexis and despite assurances, much
of the power of the Factiva indexing was lost on the Lexis platform. Factiva coding
of stories allowed you to select stories
based on both the geographic location of a publication and the geographic
location of the subject. Without this coding it is extremely difficult to
locate stories in Japanese news sources about Toyota plants in the US. Lexis
assures me that the Moreover platform will support this kind of granular
distinction in creating alerts.
of my big gripes about the loss of access to “native Factiva” was the granularity of
Factiva indexing. The deal Lexis Nexis struck with Dow Jones in 2005 which ended law firms’
ability to subscribe directly to either Factiva or to get corporate accounts for the
Wall Street Journal. Factiva was loaded into Nexis and despite assurances, much
of the power of the Factiva indexing was lost on the Lexis platform. Factiva coding
of stories allowed you to select stories
based on both the geographic location of a publication and the geographic
location of the subject. Without this coding it is extremely difficult to
locate stories in Japanese news sources about Toyota plants in the US. Lexis
assures me that the Moreover platform will support this kind of granular
distinction in creating alerts.
Third Party Aggregation
The
Moreover Platform can accept and redistribute feeds from third party
publishers. According to Lexis it will be up to each publisher to determine if
they will allow Lexis to redistribute the feeds. So in theory — the
Lexis News Desk platform may be able to deliver feeds from Lexis major
competitors, Thomson Reuters, BloombergBNA and Wolters Kluwer.
Moreover Platform can accept and redistribute feeds from third party
publishers. According to Lexis it will be up to each publisher to determine if
they will allow Lexis to redistribute the feeds. So in theory — the
Lexis News Desk platform may be able to deliver feeds from Lexis major
competitors, Thomson Reuters, BloombergBNA and Wolters Kluwer.
Getting Social: Share of Voice
The
Moreover analytics are impressive. Administrators and end users can interact
with and analyze news using a variety of visual tools.
Moreover analytics are impressive. Administrators and end users can interact
with and analyze news using a variety of visual tools.
- Charts can show “share
of voice” - Maps will show
geographic concentration of coverage of a topic by state - Timetrends will
show spikes in news coverage - Word clouds
allow you to select a subset of stories on a particular issue - RSS feeds can be
posted with charts to show trends
It
is simply not possible to describe all the analytics or functions I observed in
an hour long demonstration. I will summarize by saying that anyone in the
market for an aggregation platform should take a close look at the LexisNexis News
Desk.
is simply not possible to describe all the analytics or functions I observed in
an hour long demonstration. I will summarize by saying that anyone in the
market for an aggregation platform should take a close look at the LexisNexis News
Desk.
There
is only one feature which I identified, that is available in competitors and which
NewsDesk doesn’t currently offer. NewsDesk does not currently allow end users
to “unsubscribe” to selected content in their personal newsletters. And it does
offer some unique features which I haven’t seen in competitor products.
is only one feature which I identified, that is available in competitors and which
NewsDesk doesn’t currently offer. NewsDesk does not currently allow end users
to “unsubscribe” to selected content in their personal newsletters. And it does
offer some unique features which I haven’t seen in competitor products.
Competition
is the mother of better products. As of 10pm on March 3, 2015, Lexis
appears to be positioned to leapfrog over many of today’s dominant aggregation players.
But
it’s a horse race and law firms can only benefit from the fierce competition in
this space. We can expect the products to keep getting easier, smarter and
offer ever deeper analytic and even predictive capabilities.
is the mother of better products. As of 10pm on March 3, 2015, Lexis
appears to be positioned to leapfrog over many of today’s dominant aggregation players.
But
it’s a horse race and law firms can only benefit from the fierce competition in
this space. We can expect the products to keep getting easier, smarter and
offer ever deeper analytic and even predictive capabilities.