On May 1st, Thomson West began its new relationship with American Law Media, becoming the exclusive distributor of ALM publications. This “content-sharing” agreement (an odd way to phrase a distribution deal) means that Westlaw is the sole third-party distributor of ALM’s publications (including American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, Corporate Counsel, New York Law Journal, and Legal Times), newsletters, and litigation resources (such as jury verdict and expert witness databases).

LexisNexis is putting its own spin on the deal. It announced, in an email newsletter to subscribers, that “following a strategic review of our business relationship and content offerings, LexisNexis has decided not to continue licensing American Lawyer Media content for distribution via the LexisNexis services.

This change does not, in any way, alter LexisNexis’ value for customers or our overall market position. A single publisher or source will never define the value of LexisNexis; instead we succeed and provide value to our customers through the combined strength of our content licenses. LexisNexis continues to offer the right solutions to deliver winning results for you. Our unmatched content collection remains an industry benchmark.”

LN goes on to boast of its large collection, some of it exclusive to LN, and to assure subscribers it’s working hard to add new titles.