A head-to-toe redesign was revealed today for the Web site of the ABA Journal. Because I am on vacation where I am short on time and reliable Internet access, I will quote from the announcement from Molly McDonough, the magazine’s assistant managing editor/online (and former associate of mine at ALM), in which she describes the site’s three major components:

Law News Now: The homepage features the latest legal news stories, hand selected by our lawyer-journalists. It’s updated continuously every business day with 25-50 summaries of and links to the most sophisticated legal reporting from around the web. A quick glance at the top of our home page will tell you the most important legal stories right now, whether it’s today’s Supreme Court decision, this morning’s developments in high-profile trials, yesterday’s law firm mega-merger, or Paris Hilton’s latest scrape with the law. If you only want to see the news about your practice area or state, we’ve created dozens of topic pages that take you directly to the news you need.

The Blawg Directory: We’ve indexed more than 1,000 blogs written by lawyers who are experts in their practice areas, with more being added daily. We tell you about the author, what they cover, and include excerpts from their 10 latest posts. You can sort the directory by subject, who writes the blog (partners, associates, judges, law professors, etc.), or by the state or court they blog about. We even have a list of blogs written by students and professors at more than 130 law schools. Know of a blog we haven’t included? Tell us about it.

The Magazine: The award-winning Journal’s deep analysis of legal trends makes it the nation’s most-read and most-respected legal affairs magazine. We’ve posted every story from every issue back through 2005; issues from previous years will be posted soon. New issues will go online the day they are published, and they’ll be augmented with Web-only exclusives like court opinions, white papers and interview transcripts that add depth to the printed stories.”

Molly adds that the site includes the tools you’d expect: visitor comments on stories, list of most-read stories, daily and weekly newsletters, RSS feeds and a mobile-phone edition.

Most importantly, the entire site is now free and available to anyone, whether they belong to the ABA or not.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.