ABA Journal

For the American Bankers Association magazine, see ABA Banking Journal.

ABA Journal

March 2007 cover of the ABA Journal
Editor	John O'Brien
Categories	Law
Frequency	Bi-monthly
Publisher	John O'Brien
Total circulation	250,000 (2021)
First issue	1915
Company	American Bar Association
Country	United States
Based in	Chicago
Language	English
Website	ABAJournal.com
ISSN	0747-0088

American Bar Association Journal

Frequency	Quarterly (1915–1920) Monthly (1921–1983) Bi-monthly (2020- )
ISSN	0002-7596

The ABA Journal (since 1984, formerly American Bar Association Journal, 1915–1983, evolved from Annual Bulletin, 1908–1914) is a monthly legal trade magazine and the flagship publication of the American Bar Association. It is now complemented online by a full-featured website, abajournal.com and its various e-newsletters and apps.

History

Bulletin

Main article: Annual Bulletin of the Comparative Law Bureau

In 1908, the Annual Bulletin was founded by the Comparative Law Bureau (1907–1933) of the American Bar Association. The first comparative law journal in the U.S., it surveyed foreign legislation and legal literature. Circulated to all ABA members, it ran from 1908 to 1914 and was absorbed in 1915 by the ABA's newly formed Journal.

Journal

In 1915, the American Bar Association Journal (abbreviated Am. Bar Assoc. j.) was founded as a quarterly magazine. Published by the ABA, it ran under this title from January 1915 to December 1983, for volume 1 to 69. Quarterly from 1915 to 1920^[1] (with its second quarter issue dedicated to the Bulletin), it became monthly in 1921.^[1]

In January 1984, it was renamed ABA Journal (abbreviated ABA j.) for volume 70 onwards. Subtitled "The Lawyer's Magazine", it initially stayed monthly,^[2] then in May 1986 became 15 issues a year,^[2] then in June 1999 became monthly^[2] again.

In 2007, the print circulation (paid and unpaid)^[3] was 375,045^[4] (stable from 381,998^[5] in December 1999).

From 2012 to the end of 2017, the executive editor and publisher was Allen Pusey. In February 2018, Molly McDonough, was named editor and publisher.^[6] John O'Brien took over as editor and publisher in November 2019.^[7]

Online

ABA Journal (Online)

In 1996,^[8] an online complement to the Journal appeared on the ABA website. This original version had monthly updates providing the current Journal's cover and table of contents, as well as online copies of some selected articles, rising through various design changes from about 3^[9] per month in 1996 to about 15^[10] per month in 2000, to about 30^[11] per month with the January 2001 new look announcing "Soon, every story in the print edition will also be available online." In 1999, the domain name ABAJournal.com had been registered and set as a redirect to the ABA website's Journal home.

ABAJournal.com

In January 2002,^[12] the site had a major redesign in form and content under then editor and publisher Danial J. Kim. The site's logo was updated to show "ABAJournal.com" as official web address^[12] (though still redirected to the ABA website). In addition to the full monthly magazine, it featured daily updates (intended to improve the mobile edition)^[12] and a weekly email newsletter called the eReport^[12] (the ABA Journal eReport). Around this time,^[13] the whole collection of the first Journal (1915–1983) was made available on the subscription website HeinOnline.

ABA Journal – Law News Now

On July 23, 2007,^[14] the site was relaunched under then editor and publisher Edward A. Adams in a Web 2.0^[14] version. Subtitled "Law News Now", it features breaking legal news updated daily and analysis from more than 2,000 legal blogs,^[15] as well as a free archive of the full-text magazine since its January 2004 issue,^[16] with a search engine. Technically, the magazine is now hosted directly on the ABAJournal.com web address (instead of the domain being redirected to the ABA's website).

See also

• Bitter Lawyer

References

1. LOC, "American Bar Association journal".
2. LOC, "ABA journal".
3. ABAJ 2009, "FAQ".
4. ABAJ, "Mediakit".
5. ABAJ (2000). "FAQ" (Archive.org copy of 2000).
6. Debra Cassens Weiss. "Molly McDonough is named editor and publisher of the ABA Journal". ABA Journal. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
7. "A Message to Our Readers". ABA Journal. Retrieved 2021-04-20.
8. Snapshot of ABA Journal Online for February 1996 at Archive.org
9. Snapshot of ABA Journal Online for November 1996 at Archive.org
10. Snapshot of ABA Journal Online for February 2000 at Archive.org
11. Snapshot of ABA Journal Online for January 2001 at Archive.org
12. Kim 2002.
13. Around this time: the OCLC record was completed from a visit in late 2002, presumably not very long after the collection went online; besides, HeinOnline was launched in 2000.
14. Griffin 2007.
15. ABAJ, "About".
16. As of March 2009^[update], the "Magazine Archives" section offers a free collection of all issues since January 2004.

• ABAJ (2009). "About the ABA Journal", www.abajournal.com, consulted in March 2009
• ABAJ (2009). "FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions", www.abajournal.com, consulted in March 2009
• ABAJ (2009). "Mediakit ABA Journal", www.abajournal.com, consulted in March 2009
• Griffin, Marie (2007). "Redesigned ABAJournal.com balances editorial and user judgment", BtoB Online, www.btobonline.com, September 4, 2007
• Kim, Danial J. (2002). "Letter from the Publisher" (Archive.org copy), ABA Journal Online, January 2002 (JavaScript required for archived images)
• LOC (2009). "American Bar Association journal", LCCN 15-17355 (also OCLC 1479565), Library of Congress Online Catalog, consulted in March 2009 — With frequency history.
• LOC (2009). "ABA journal", LCCN 84-641839 (also OCLC 10269097), Library of Congress Online Catalog, consulted in March 2009 — With frequency history.

Further reading

• Annual Report of the American Bar Association for 1915 at the Internet Archive — Comments on Bulletin being merged into the new Journal.

External links

• ABA Journal at JSTOR