Sometimes crime does pay… just not in the way you’d expect. Companies like Law & Crime Network are cashing in on crime.
“I was [Dan Abrams’] first or second employee when we started Law Newz seven years ago,” Rachel Stockman told Barrett News Media over Zoom.
Since 2016 the startup with 3 people exploded into a company of nearly 100 and changed their brand name from Law Newz to Law & Crime Network. Now the President of Law & Crime Network, Stockman, like many great journalists, started as an intern in local news.
Her West Virginia internship turned into a passion as national news hit her small market. “The Sago Mine disaster happened and so it was really my first experience being part of a national news story,” she recalled, “so that really sparked my interest to to become a journalist.”
Moving on to be a reporter in Green Bay, Atlanta, and New York it was her experience in Phoenix which ignited her passion.
“I was covering a lot of immigration-related issues. And they at the time, passed a really controversial immigration law,” Stockman said, “I was a young reporter, and I just remembered how intimidating I thought covering courts was at the time.”
The intimidation turned into questions and questions brought an application to Law School. She graduated from Yale but did not become a lawyer.
“I decided to go back into journalism after that. But it was still great to have that legal foundation,” Stockman explained. “Going to law school really gave me the confidence to continue to report on really critical issues in our justice system.” Confidence she uses to inspire her team at Law & Crime, adding, “The foundation of [the network] is really law and crime and accuracy and commitment to really understanding how our justice system works.”
Law & Crime Network brings that understanding to their viewers in four different ways, OTT networks, social media, lawandcrime.com, and Productions. The key to what Stockman calls their “360 approach” is dominating social media. “Our YouTube page has a huge presence, almost 6 million subscribers, and we’re covering everything from court cases to the big to true crime stories to big legal stories.”
Stockman added they have nearly 1 million subscribers on TikTok and an extremely active Snapchat page.
The network’s viewership began reaching a larger audience via their production company. “We are producing content for partners like Netflix, [and] Hulu,” Stockman added. “One of our great partners is A&E. We really leverage our experience in the legal and crime sphere to be able to then create compelling programing for them as well.”
The biggest viewer expansion Stockman says came from the 2022 Johnny Depp Trial. “We honestly were not expecting that one to blow up as it did. Obviously, we knew there would be interest because they were celebrities,” She recalled. “But we were really shocked by kind of the level of universal interest in the case and how not only were people tracking kind of daily developments, they were really in the courtroom every single day wanting to not miss a moment of that case.”
Commitment to their community is key, with almost 6 million YouTube subscribers they typically have hundreds of people, actively chatting every day. “They’re alerting us to other cases that are going around the country. And it’s really unique compared to other companies and other media organizations. Just how loyal are our fans and our community is,” Stockman said.
Even with a committed community, it remains hard to get every court case,
“It is difficult in some states to get in [to court] and some states don’t allow cameras altogether.”
Stockman continued to say “The federal court system also does not allow cameras in court. So there we are, pretty limited, I would say probably 30 states allow cameras in court.”
This creates a challenge for the Network as some states allow cameras on a case-by-case basis or have banned cameras entirely.
Stockman feels Law & Crime’s coverage of court is worth fighting for. “We believe in transparency. We think the public should be able to see our court system and see our justice system in action.” Some critics believe cameras in court don’t provide transparency instead becoming a distraction and dramatizing the process. If given the option Stockman’s answer is simple, “We always want to air on the side of transparency if there’s a choice.”
Barrett News Media pressed Stockman on if there were cases that took advantage of cameras in the court, turning a trial into a circus or more of a TV show. Her response? “Overall, judges and attorneys can certainly when they know they’re being taped, when they know they’re going to be on camera, on a live stream will certainly play to the cameras. There’s no denying in that.”
Stockman added, “That just goes along with any major case that happens. There’s going to be media coverage and there is going to be folks on either side taking advantage of that or trying to get in the spotlight and push their case in any certain direction.”
Law & Crime Network is not alone in the true crime market, other networks like Court TV and the True Crime Network are willful adversaries but Stockman says Law & Crime does something the others don’t, have a diverse case group.
“We’ll cover the wide range, whereas a lot of times our competitors will narrow in on one case. We’re everywhere and covering everything from all different angles and sides.”
Stockman added “We really have had a huge focus on our social as a strategy. Social first.”
The network is planning on continuing its growth in 2024. and while Stockman couldn’t get into specifics she did tell BNM, “We are going to be launching some more YouTube channels. In the crime space, we’re working to increase our distribution for our linear channel and get on more OTT platforms.”
Stockman added, “We’re going to continue to be the leader in true crime, making sure we’re the ones that are on top of all the major cases and bring our audience the biggest the latest developments.”
Note: Krystina Alarcon Carroll worked at Law & Crime Network in 2021.
Krystina Alarcon Carroll is a news media columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
