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June 2009The Name GameA brief overview of the Washington State Bar News-Bulletin-Review-Journal-Magazine: Time for a change? by Bar News Editor Michael Heatherly I would like to reiterate how much I enjoy serving as editor of the Washington Law Bulletin Journal — I mean, the Bar Review News — err, the Law Journal Newsletter. Wait, I get confused. Let me explain. Since becoming editor at the end of 2007, I have worked with the staff, WSBA leaders, article contributors, and the Editorial Advisory Committee to make Bar News (full name, Washington State Bar News) as informative and readable as possible. We have tried to gradually broaden our pool of authors, emphasize the human and practical aspects of articles, and provide more comprehensive, balanced coverage of major issues affecting WSBA members. I believe we have made progress. I am now proposing a change that is less substantive but more dramatic: Let’s consider changing the magazine’s name. This publication has a long and noble history, but one fraught with bland and confusing monikers. Ever since the organization now known as the Washington State Bar Association was founded in 1888, it has published a periodical. For the first 39 years, the publication was a soft-cover book bearing the jaunty title Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Washington State Bar Association. If you happen to have a copy of PAMWSBA in your attic, you really should clear out your attic more often. I won’t go so far as to suggest that the reason PAMWSBA was published only once a year was that nobody wanted to be reminded of the gawky title more often than that. More likely, it was published so infrequently because the five or so lawyers practicing in Washington at the time were too busy dashing from county to county on their quarter horses and steam locomotives to read about WSBA affairs. At any rate, in 1928 PAMWSBA was mercifully discontinued and WSBA news began running in a section of the Washington Law Review, usually appearing between Little Orphan Annie and the Sears and Roebuck long-john ads. When the WSBA was converted to its current unified format in 1933, it launched its own small magazine. Presumably, a contest was conducted to select the title that would cause the greatest confusion with the existing Washington Law Review, as the new publication was entitled Washington State Bar Review. Further complicating matters, approximately a year later the Bar Review was merged back into the Law Review with the conglomerated periodical being dubbed the Washington Law Review and State Bar Journal. The word “journal” obviously was inserted to avoid the humiliation that would have ensued with publication of a periodical having not just one but two “Reviews” in its title. Finally, in 1947, the Washington State Bar News was established, beginning life as a four-page monthly tabloid. This was a “tabloid” in the original sense, a scaled-down newspaper. It did not carry news of celebrity sex scandals and miracle diets (I checked). Meanwhile, a section of the Washington Law Review remained dedicated to WSBA matters until 1961, when the Law Review severed all official journalistic connections to the WSBA. So, this has been the Washington State Bar News for 62 years. It is a straightforward and serviceable name. What it doesn’t seem to be, though, is distinctive or memorable. The majority of people who approach me to discuss the publication refer to it as the “Bar Journal” (confusing it with the Journal, last published in 1947?), the “Bar Review” (apparently confusing it with the Law Review, which is waaaay scholarly but has nothing to compete with our Disciplinary Notices and Letters to the Editor for entertainment value), or the “Bar Bulletin” (probably confusing it with the King County Bar Association’s publication of that name). Some combine the same words in various other permutations, such as the “Bar News Journal” or the “Bar News Bulletin.” The point is that people rarely call this publication by its proper name. Perhaps this is because Bar News is such a generic and thus easily forgotten phrase. Meanwhile, having the word “Bar” in the title is redundant in that we add “Washington State” above “Bar News.” We do that because the official name contains all four words but running all the words on one line would make the letters too small to stand out. At the same time, we tack on “The Official Publication of the Washington State Bar Association” for clarity. Especially in these belt-tightening times, this seems an uneconomical deployment of words. I did not originate the idea of a name change. A staff member suggested it to me casually when I came on board. I was intrigued by the idea and have since brainstormed about it with staff and the Editorial Advisory Committee (EAC). Despite everyone’s appreciation for the longevity of the current name, there was substantial interest in exploring a change. What benefits might we get from changing the name? I believe a distinctive new name would be more memorable and would refresh the publication’s image. A name change would give us the perfect opportunity for a style makeover of the magazine, a low-cost way to infuse it with new energy. Meanwhile, a new name in which “Washington” were an integral part would eliminate the need to repeat that word, as we do in the current name. When we began discussing a possible name change, EAC Member Lisa Bradley took the time to survey the names of other states’ bar publications. By far, the two most common names were [Whatever State] Lawyer (18 states) and the [Whatever State] Journal (sometimes combined with “bar” or “law,” etc.) (17). There were eight publications titled Bar News, including ours. The remaining publications have various names, including the Bar Rag (apparently the Alaska Bar has a sense of humor), The Advocate, and The Gavel (a strong name, but one that would seem more appropriate for a judges’ association). Although I hope to hear suggestions from others before campaigning for any particular new name, I’ll throw out some possibilities that have occurred to me: Washington Law and Law Washington are bold, simple names that would look good on the cover. Theoretically, someone unfamiliar with the WSBA who stumbled upon the magazine might wrongly assume the name referred to Washington, D.C., but what harm would result? Washington Lawyer would hardly be unique in format, as many states’ publications use “Lawyer” in the title. But it has a modern, professional feel and emphasizes that the magazine serves us, the lawyers. Some states add “magazine” to the title; Washington Lawyer Magazine has a nice ring to it and would clearly distinguish us from Washington Law Review and the various local and specialty bar publications. Washington Lawyer Monthly would have a similar effect. Washington Advocate is a sharp name, although it doesn’t definitively identify the magazine as a legal publication. There is a national non-lawyer magazine named The Advocate, but having “Washington” in the title of ours should clearly distinguish it from that publication. Going in a different direction, when I was trying to come up with a name for my back-page column, I considered “Behind the Bar,” “Above the Bar,” “Below the Bar,” “Inside the Bar,” and “Raising the Bar.” Those might work for the magazine, too, although I eventually abandoned them as names for the column because they sounded too much like something that would appear in a trade journal for bartenders. Let us know what you think about a name change, if the names I have suggested appeal to you, and if you have any other ideas for a name. If we get strong support for two or three particular names, we’ll consider a contest to decide the winner. If we are flooded with opposition to changing the name at all, we’ll stick with Bar News, tried and true. We look forward to hearing from you. Send your ideas to barnewscomments@wsba.org.
Washington Law Send your thoughts and suggestions to barnewscomments@wsba.org. |
