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Steroids angle couldn't wait

By Mark Obbie

The curse of the monthly magazine editor or writer is to see into the future, and know which stories will be fresh when they reach readers -- despite a lag time that's often weeks long between shipping the issue to the printer and its arrival in mailboxes. That curse is especially cruel when the magazine wades into a fast-breaking story. The American Lawyer's Paul Braverman and his editors faced that reality by tackling a feature on George Mitchell's role as Major League Baseball's outside investigator of steroid abuse.  The story contains new details on the role of Mitchell's law partner Charles Scheeler and the unusual level of cooperation he and Mitchell arranged with federal prosecutors in wrangling witnesses for their respective probes. Scheeler and his investigative tactics will be on center stage today as the House convenes its heavily publicized hearing on steroids (NYT and WSJ Law Blog). The American Lawyer's March issue goes to press this week, and won't hit the in-boxes of subscribers for another two weeks or so. The magazine is loath to simply publish stories online before subscribers -- who pay dearly for the magazine -- get first crack at them. What's the monthly to do? AmLaw's solution was to carve out an adaptation of the article, which it posted on its Web site and distributed through PR channels yesterday. The story adds only incrementally to what's already been reported, and it feels like what it is: a partially told story. But it's a significant new chapter in the saga. A Google News search this morning didn't turn up evidence that the story has achieved any bounce yet. Braverman and his editors, however, have the next best thing: A good night's sleep, knowing that they dealt creatively with the monthly curse.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on February 13, 2008 (boomark / email).