Advantage Bloomberg? Part 2: Yes, once BNA resources are fully integrated into or current BNA costs are offset for BLaw to compete with Wolters Kluwer

The integration of BNA's resources into BLaw will take about a year. In this context, note what Jean O'Grady says (heading in bold as published) in her Dewey B Strategic post about subscribing to BLaw at DLA Piper:

Yes BNA Is Included at No Additional Cost

Bloomberg appears to be staying true to the business model and is including acquisitions both big and small in Bloomberg Law at no additional cost. When they bought Business Week, it was fully integrated Now Bloomberg is telling subscribers that as soon as all of the BNA material including all newsletters, e.g. the pricey "Daily Report for Executives" and all BNA research platforms such as the Intellectual Property Library are converted, all BNA content -- including content not previously subscribed to will be available at no additional cost to the Bloomberg Law subscribers.

(Emphasis added.)

That’s a damn "good thing." Even at BLaw's single seat flat rate of $450 per month that cost starts to sound reasonable once all of BNA is loaded into BLaw -- better still for a multiuser license -- for several reasons.

First BLaw will be offering a fairly complete set of practice area offerings by way of BNA's premium editorial quality resources. Eventually, this will include, for example,

• Labor & Employment Law Resource Center
• Intellectual Property Law Resource Center
• Telecommunications Law Resource Center
• Internet Law Resource Center
• Health Law Resource Center
• Benefits Practice Resource Center
• Bankruptcy Law Resource Center

Outside of BNA's Law and Business publishing division, let’s not forget BNA’s Tax & Accounting, Environment, Health & Safety, and Human Resources publishing divisions. I think content from at least the first two, if not all three, will eventually be offered by way of BLaw online.

Second, the cost for a single seat or multiuser license for BLaw will be at least partially offset because institutional buyers will no longer have to subscribe to standalone BNA Resource Centers and other BNA services and may further be offset by cancelling at least some Wolters Kluwer IntelliConnect services.

Hopefully, institutional buyers will still be able to license some BNA Resource Centers as standalones if they do not need or want all of BLaw but clearly BLaw is not worried about cannibalizing BNA revenue for increasing its adoption rate, which so far has been less than spectacular. Hell, BLaw needed BNA content to justify its not inexpensive but getting worth the price of BLaw's single or multiuser flat rate licenses. Now it's time to give BNA's sale force the green light to sell BLaw.

Two questions to consider about the recent BLaw-DLA Piper announcement. First, did DLA Piper kill or keep some Wolters Kluwer IntelliConnect resources? Of course, I'm assuming DLA Piper has some WK resources but it is hard to imagine the firm's tax specialists practicing law without IntelliConnect's "Standard Federal Tax Reporter," opps, I mean online (or at least print) tax materials.

I also find it hard to imagine DLA Piper’s tax attorneys not having BNA's Daily Tax Report delivered to the desktop and just as hard to imagine that any DLA Piper labor and employment attorney is practicing without BNA Labor & Employment Law Resource Center for research and BNA's Daily Labor Report delivered to the desktop for current awareness purposes. 

Hence the second question. Is DLA Piper still paying for BNA resources not yet available on BLaw if the firm has online licenses from them? Hell if I know. Perhaps DLA Piper only subscribes to BNA publications in print.

However, in the world of BigLaw deep pockets, taking DLA Piper out of the equation, I would insist on a waiver of all licensing fees for BNA Resource Centers and eNewsletters I currently have that are not yet online via BLaw in exchange for signing up for BLaw. In the world of smaller pockets, BLaw’s flat rate fees for some seats, not necessarily all of an institutional buyer’s user population, becomes reasonable at this time if a BNA licensing cost offset is part of the deal.

It is also hard for me to imagine that any BigLaw firm isn't subscribing to or interested in subscribing to BGov for some seats. BNA's reporters are some of the most, if not the most, trusted and experienced press corps on Capital Hill. Their content will enhance BGov when integrated (if that has not already been done). So toss that into the mix, too.

Wolters Kluwer should be worried. But is BLaw ready now to be the primary or sole provider for BigLaw institutional buyers? That’s the topic of tomorrow’s post. [JH]