American Lawyer Media will change its company name Oct. 1 to simply ALM, company president William Pollak announced in a memo to staff today. “Commencing on October 1, we will be changing our name to ALM, and will no longer refer to ourselves as American Lawyer Media,” he wrote. “We anticipate that this transition will not be finalized until the end of the year.”

The name change is one step in a broader effort to raise awareness of the company that serves as parent to a host of magazines, newspapers, Web sites, books, newsletters and trade shows, the memo said. While the company has focused its marketing on supporting these individual publications, products and services, Pollak said, “we have done little to promote the company as a whole among our clients.”

The change is also a step towards moving into new markets, Pollak said, “including both the business-to-business advertising market and, increasingly, as a provider of legal news to non-lawyers in the business community with a need for the kind of information and perspective that we offer.”

ALM will roll out the new brand in stages, Pollak said, beginning with its appearance on the covers of ALM publications the first week in October. ALM will relaunch its corporate Web site in mid-November to reflect the re-branding. The rollout will culminate, he said, with media announcements and advertising campaigns.

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Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.