Lawyers, boats and paywalls

The news this week has been all about how the Times lost 90% of its online readership by implementing a paywall arrangement for access to its site (see for example the Guardian coverage).

There is some debate about whether this figure is good or bad (personally I imagine it was close to what they were expecting), but it has certainly gained a lot of attention.

Leaving aside all this excitement though, I have come across another area this week where paywalls seem to be quietly thriving - the world of boat reviews.

This requires a bit of illustration. Imagine you want to buy a sailing boat and you see a notice at the sailing club offering a Westerly Nimrod for sale at a suitable price.

You haven't heard of this class of boat, but a Google search suggests it could be right for you. You find a few pictures, a bit of history from the Westerly Owners Association and a couple of blogs, but not much detailed information. After all, there are a lot of classes of boats and many aren't covered in detail on the web.

What you need to know is how this type of boat sails, how it compares to the competition, what kind of price you should expect to pay and whether there are any particular problems to look out for.

Someone who owns one could give you some advice, but how do you know if this is accurate or objective. Everyone tends to look at their own boat with a particular fondness - and maybe he has never sailed anything else!

Suddenly, an objective review of the boat is actually quite valuable to you... and it may be available. At a price.

There are quite a few sailing magazines published in the UK which review new and used boats each month.

Many of them now offer downloads of their old reviews. These are expensive even compared to the Times paywall (£6 for a 4-page review), but if you are deciding whether to spend £2,000 (or £200,000!) on a new yacht then it may make sense to pay.

In fact, Practical Boat Owner reviewed the Westerly Nimrod in 2000 and you can buy the review online in PDF format for £6.95. In this situation (which is hypothetical - just in case my wife is reading this and getting worried) I probably would.

Of course, this is a great example of Chris Anderson's Long Tail effect. Rather than stocking back issues of magazines in a warehouse, it now costs the publishers very little to offer all their old boat reviews for instant access online.

It doesn't really matter if I am the only person to buy the review this year as the marginal cost of hosting each review is close to zero and I have paid more than the cost of a whole issue of the magazine just to read these four pages. Of course, this is all about the timing - a month ago I would never have dreamed of paying £1.50 a page for this, but "right here and now" it is good value for me.

So what has this go to do with lawyers?

Well, in my view, there is an easy comparison with the rise of free (or very low cost) legal services on the internet.

Buying a boat is an important decision which can be very expensive if it isn't done properly. So are making a will, drafting terms and conditions for your business or getting divorced (to take just a few examples).

In the same way I can find information on the boat online (reading blogs and websites, joining forums and asking existing owners) I could pull together my own business terms and conditions or find out about making a will or getting divorced using free resources.

There is a DIY option in both situations, but it may well be time consuming and there is no guarantee that it will give me an objective, expert answer which will suit my requirements.

In the case of the boat, what I am really buying with my £6.95 is an objective opinion from an expert who has sailed a lot of different boats and can compare it to the alternatives available. I also get professional photographs and a good steer on what I should be paying and what to look out for. Finally, I get it instantly when I enter my credit card details.

The position with the lawyer is (or should be!) the same. The basic legal resources are available on a "DIY" basis, but what you are really paying for is the judgement and expertise of someone who is acting in your best interests and can apply this to your own individual circumstances.

This has always been the case, but maybe the internet is actually a great opportunity to offer this to clients quickly and conveniently - in the "right here and now" when they need it?

Sailing magazines obviously figured this out a long time before the Times paywall was even conceived... maybe it is time for more lawyers to do the same?