Why was one of many greatest legislation podcasts shut down?

Simply earlier than the vacations, Law360 canceled its long-running and well-regarded podcast Professional Say, a lot to the shock of individuals in legislation and authorized media. Professional Say, which debuted in 2017, was thought-about one of many high authorized information podcasts available on the market and was notably standard amongst attorneys and legislation college students. It even had its Hollywood second in 2022 when the titular character of Disney Plus’ She-Hulk: Legal professional at Regulation was proven listening to the podcast. 

The choice to chop the present got here, seemingly, out of nowhere. Professional Say co-host and Law360 senior reporter Alex Lawson informed Scorching Pod that the group was notified solely two days earlier than they recorded the present’s final episode, which revealed on December twenty first. In accordance with senior producer Steven Dealer, the present hadn’t skilled a decline in listenership or every other hiccups that normally precede a cancellation. Much more confusingly, solely 10 days prior, the Professional Say group had given a presentation — on the request of administration — for staffers on learn how to pitch the present. 

However Professional Say was a departure from Law360’s regular mannequin. Practically the entire work produced by the authorized publication, which is owned by authorized data and analytics firm LexisNexis, which is in flip owned by common enterprise analytics firm RELX, is behind a (very excessive) paywall. For seven years, how a lot or little the podcast generated didn’t matter. The weekly present was a facet gig for staffers who produced journalism that went behind the paywall. Dealer stated solely in 2022 did the present search to noticeably pursue analytics and adverts when it began publishing with Megaphone. And even then, no person in administration was hounding the group about downloads or advert gross sales.