Fergie's Tech Blog

2 April 1973: LexisNexis Publicly Launches

Anglo/Dutch publishing giant Reed Elsevier currently owns LexisNexis. At its inception in 1970, the database was christened LEXIS by Mead Data Central[MDC], a subsidiary of the Mead Corporation. It was a continuation of an experiment organized by the Ohio State Bar in 1967. On April 2, 1973, LEXIS launched publicly, offering full-text searching of all Ohio and New York cases. In 1980, LEXIS completed its hand-keyed electronic archive of all U.S. federal and state cases, a monumental achievement. The NEXIS service, added that same year, gave journalists a searchable database of news articles. (Notice the caps; it was then standard to capitalize online services.)

LexisNexis (sometimes simply called "Lexis" among users) is a popular searchable archive of content from newspapers, magazines, legal documents and other printed sources. Its primary customers are lawyers, journalists, and academics; its slogan is "It's how you know."

LexisNexis' chief competitor in the legal market is Westlaw. Because West and LexisNexis are so pervasive in the legal research marketplace, some customers have jokingly imagined an organization called Wexis.

In 1975, West Publishing Company developed Westlaw. The service was launched in 1975 with headline-only searches but offered true full-text searching in December of 1976. Westlaw is currently NexisLexis's industry rival.

In 1994, Mead Corp divested itself of MDC to return to its core competency of office supply manufacture. Reed Elsevier, PLC, in December of that year, acquired MDC, known as LexisNexis thereafter. During the handover, LexisNexis's website, the LexisNexis Communication Center, went online.

posted by Fergie @ 4/01/2006 10:01:00 PM