Talking to Myself About Web Disclosure

I’ll confess, I also talk to myself (but as robust as you!).

Back in the day when I worked at Financial Relations Board, I seem to remember similar discourse when we began using ‘blast email’ to distribute news. Get it to the wire services and exchange FIRST, then followers list. 

IMO, I think companies like have a middle-man (sorry) handle the distribution so they can have someone other than themselves to blame if an error occurs. And, I think this might contribute to the slow adaptation of new tools available to ALL companies. I mean ALL companies: public or private, big or small, solo-preneur and small businesses. The tools of web disclosure and analysis are available to everyone with most being no- or low-cost.

On your next walk, ask the question: “Are social media the ‘lions at the gate’ for publicly traded companies who remain in denial?”

Amusing and informative conversation. I loved the “thats what she said” comment. LOL.

You covered off most of the points, but as you know it goes deeper. For instance the “challenge” of clicking to view a press release is another point of contention from some on the wire side of the argument. (I personally find this one the most amusing).

I think your final point is the most accurate, there is not a one-size fits all approach to this. Each company must determine the best path for them and execute. I don’t think there is one company, vendor or consultant out there that is pushing for a company to be less transparent, or to reach less of the market. It is a debate on what is the most efficient way to reach the market and connect with investors.

I think it’s clear that there are many companies and IROs out there looking for new ways of doing things, because the traditional way just isn’t working. With these early adopters we’ll all learn what works and what doesn’t and the new “best practices” will emerge.

Keep up the great blogging!

Great blog post Rob!  While I don’t have a dog in this fight, I would say that with the exception of Google, I am not aware of a single web site where most people go nearly every day or even several times per day.  As such I find it difficult to accept the notion that posting news to your web site constitutes broad disclosure. 

On the buyside all or nearly all investors have a news feed through Bloomberg, Reuters etc and get the information simultaneously.  Disseminating news simultaneously is what Reg FD is all about (in my layman’s interpretation anyhow).  If “self published disclosure” takes hold it all but assures that certain investors will receive the information ahead of others.  If that happens aren’t we back to where we were in early 2000 before Reg FD was implemented?

Even if some very vocal curmudgeons take issue with the wire services…Those wire services do what they are asked.  They disseminate information quickly and efficiently.  They also provide value added services such as proof reading etc.  These wire services come at a cost but so doesn’t “free” web disclosure which is bundled in with other services.

Nice post Rob. I talk to myself too, but don’t usually admit it - especially when I lose an argument to myself.

I’m a big fan of ‘self-published disclosure’ and believe that it’s the right thing to do for many reasons:

- it’s cheaper
- you control the content (including typos) and timing 100%
- it will drive traffic to your website - which is a very good thing, especially from a tracking perspective to see who is reading your releases

So, in order to be effective, in addition to posting the news on the IR website, IRO’s need to act a little like wire services and also distribute the news to a core list of investor-oriented news services: Bloomberg, AP, Reuters, Dow Jones,etc. Their job is to disseminate business news to their customers - and I don’t think they care how they get the news in the first place. I doubt if Bloomberg would refuse to push your news if they don’t receive it from a wire service. News is news and the media are always hungry for it, regardless of the source.

With a little work, an IRO could build a very comprehensive media and investor email list and use it to supplement the web posting and disseminate the news simultaneously to a larger number of stakeholders.

Once more IROs start submitting their own news to the Reuters and Bloombergs of the world - they will pay more attention to that news and distribute it rapidly and widely.