Wisconsin Lawyer Redesign: We Asked, You Responded

“Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” We can be certain about one more thing: Wisconsin Lawyer^™ readers have opinions about this magazine, and you didn’t disappoint in telling us what you think about its new content focus and design.

Designing a magazine is like building a home. You research trends, consider how you will use the space, bring in experts to help you make good decisions, and talk with others who have gone through similar experiences. The result is a plan to get you from vision to reality. When the work is done, you step back and look at it as a whole. And, everyone who enters your new home shares their opinion of what they like and don’t like about it.

Is the redesign perfect? It never is (we are our worst critics). I would summarize your feedback as follows: I really like the content changes, but the font size, particularly in the court digest column, is hard to read. We hear you. In this issue, we increased the font size in the court digest columns. We made some tweaks throughout the publication to improve readability.

Many of you also have an opinion about the paper the magazine is printed on. Here are comments from two readers: “Nice job on the new design, it even feels different in my hands!” “I find the look and feel – the much-reduced paper quality – very disappointing.”

We changed the paper nearly three years ago as a way to keep rising paper and associated postage costs in check. Would we prefer to print the magazine on a brighter, heavier stock? Absolutely. Increasing costs coupled with tighter budget constraints led us to the decision to sacrifice paper quality over content. Do you agree?

A pleasant outcome of the redesign is a personal, one-on-one exchange with many readers over the past month. You asked for advice on writing for the Wisconsin Lawyer. Start with reviewing the writing guidelines at wisbar.org/wl, then give us a call. You also wanted to know what happened to the Letters to the Editor column. Here it is, now called Inbox to reflect the change in how we receive reader feedback.

Please continue to send your feedback to wislawmag@wisbar.org. We really want to hear your content ideas, inspiring stories about the practice of law, or general thoughts about the magazine.

Joyce Hastings
Editor, Wisconsin Lawyer magazine
jhastings@wisbar.org

Wisconsin Lawyer Hits a Home Run

I think the new look and format of the Wisconsin Lawyer is a home run! It compartmentalizes articles and features in a way that makes the magazine more appealing in today’s Web-based world, without sacrificing on good content. Plus, the inside just looks good. One would think that you expanded your budget significantly in order to produce such high quality, but I know that is simply not the case. I was sincerely impressed.

Kevin J. Palmersheim
Haley Palmersheim S.C., Middleton

Bigger Font, Please

The font and (particularly) font size on the “Court of Appeals Digest” section makes it very hard to read compared to the font and font size used in the articles.

David B. Nance
Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission, Madison

The new format of the magazine seems to be in smaller print. I will be reading less of it if this continues to be the case.

Name Withheld

Likes “Bite-sized” Content

I just received my copy of the new Wisconsin Lawyer magazine, and I thought the format changes were outstanding. I especially like how certain sections were broken out into more “bite-sized” articles and the “Meet Our Contributors” and “Briefly” sections.

Andrew P. Beilfuss
Quarles & Brady LLP, Milwaukee

Author Ken Axe Doesn’t Look Anything like His Photo

Why? Because we mistakenly ran the wrong photo with his article “Who Is a Religious or Ministerial Employee?” in the December 2012 issue. Here is the real Ken.

We sincerely apologize to Ken, his firm, family, and friends.

Wisconsin Lawyer editors