Tag Archives: Information
Chicago TV biz show ending later this month
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“Monsters & Money in the Morning,” a Chicago television show that featured Chicago Sun-Times financial columnist Terry Savage and business journalist Mike Hegedus along with two sports commentators, is ending on Aug. 7.
Lewis Lazare of the Sun-Times reports, “WBBM’s new early morning show will be more traditional in format than ‘Monsters’ was, but still different enough to offer an alternative to what is currently available, station sources said. And Channel 2’s new early morning show will start at 4:30 a.m., the start time that is now the new norm in the Chicago market for early newscasts. The fate of the four ‘Monsters’ anchors is unclear, but sources said it’s possible one or more of them will continue to work at the station.
“‘Monsters’ lasted just seven months. It’s ratings were abysmal, about half of the already minuscule numbers WBBM was pulling in the early morning time slot before ‘Monsters’ debuted.
“WBBM general manager Bruno Cohen and news director Jeff Kiernan hoped they could give Chicagoans something different, but most viewers rejected the roundtable format with hosts discussing finance, sports and other news of the day. If nothing else, Cohen and Kiernan may have learned a valuable lesson about how far from the traditional news formats Chicagoans are willing to venture.”
Read more here.
House Democrat backs law fixing SEC's FOI exemption
by Chris Roush
A top Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday proposed to take back disclosure exemptions granted to U.S. securities regulators in new financial reform legislation.
Emma Ashburn of Reuters writes, “Edolphus Towns, a New York Democrat who chairs the House Oversight and Governance Reform Committee, introduced a bill that would eliminate enhanced privacy measures for the Securities and Exchange Commission included in the Dodd-Frank Act.
“His support for such an action adds momentum to a similar measure already introduced in the Senate.
“The Dodd-Frank Act, which was signed into law last month, gave the SEC explicit exemptions from having to comply with some Freedom of Information Act requests from press and the public.
“The exemption has drawn criticism from some lawmakers, who argue it will shield the SEC from having to be transparent about its dealings with financial companies.”
Read more here.
Black Enterprise turns 40
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Steve Smith of minonline writes about Black Enterprise magazine as it celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Smith writes, “The milestone is being marked by the special current issue that highlights entrepreneurs who will drive the next 40 years of Africn-American leadership in business. As well, the Labor Day weekend Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge is being held in Carlsbad, Calif., including a ‘Next 40 Gala’ event. A magazine app for the iPad is coming soon. And ‘The Black Enterprise Business Report’ TV series returns to syndication this fall, now with a new host in executive editor Caroline Clarke.
“Black Enterprise CEO Earl ‘Butch’ Graves, Jr. says in the new issue that the brand is available now on four platforms, print, Web, TV and events. And in this anniversary month they plan to move to to a fifth, the iPad. He is promising an app that will include real-time stock quotes, customized content, slide shows and video. ‘Besides being what I consider the ultimate in customer service for our audience, I just think it’s very cool,’ he writes in the magazine. Graves says additional apps will be forthcoming.
“In addition to an anniversary, Black Enterprise magazine can also mark strong performance in the second quarter of 2010. According to Publishers Information Bureau figures, the magazine posted an 8.8% growth in ad pages between April and June 2010 vs. same period 2009. In rate card revenue that represented an increase of 8%.”
Read more here.
Banks ask court to let it control "hot news"
by Chris Roush
Attorneys for investment banking firms suing financial news site Theflyonthewall.com argued Friday before the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that they should be able to control when news such as analyst upgrades and downgrades get disseminated.
Larry Neumeister of the Associated Press reports, “The financial companies in 2006 sued the Summit, N.J.-based corporation for copyright infringement and misappropriation, citing Theflyonthewall.com as the most systematic and egregious of the unauthorized redistributors of their reports.
“Rich said the lawsuit was not ‘speech directed’ or an attack on the First Amendment.
“At one point, Judge Reena Raggi asked him why the financial firms were not damaged if CNBC or The New York Times released the same information as Theflyonthewall.com.
“‘Our clients are pragmatic,’ he said. Rich called Theflyonthewall.com a ‘business that focuses on beating our own clients to the punch.’”
Read more here.
Hearing scheduled on SEC's new FOI exemption
by Chris Roush
Congressman Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, announced Wednesday that the committee will hold a hearing in September to explore concerns raised about the provision of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which provides some exemption to the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the Freedom of Information Act.
The exemption, which was first reported last week by Fox Business Network, concerns business journalists covering the regulatory agency.
The provision of the new law which addresses this issue was originally requested by SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro and by former SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. In the Senate, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) included the provision in a manager’s amendment which was not adopted in the Senate, but which became part of the base text of the bill before it went to the conference committee.
“Given the serious questions that have been raised about the impact this provision could have on access to important information about financial transactions, I will hold a hearing of the Financial Services Committee when Congress returns in September,” said Frank in a statement. “I will convene the hearing on September 23rd. This should provide ample time to take corrective legislation action if it is needed.”
Sept. 23 is the first practical day for a hearing of the full committee due to the short legislative week beginning on Sept. 13, and because of Yom Kippur on Sept. 18.
SEC not seeking FOI exemption, agency says in letter
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The Securities and Exchange Commission was not seeking a blanket exemption from public information laws when it asked Congress to include a little known provision in the Wall Street reform law, according to a letter it sent to lawmakers Friday.
Organizations such as the Society of American Business Editors and Writers have objected to the provision in the past week, saying it will hurt reporters’ ability to cover stories.
Annalyn Censky of CNNMoney.com writes, “The SEC responded to those concerns in its letters to Dodd and Frank on Friday, saying the exemption was merely meant to apply to documents related to routine examinations, in which companies will often reveal ‘sensitive and proprietary information’ including customer records, trading algorithms and company strategies.
“Without the exemption, the SEC said many companies would refuse to cooperate with such examinations out of fear that their private information may be made public. The FOIA exemption makes it harder for companies to refuse to participate in the examinations, the SEC.
“‘It will allow the SEC to gain access in a timely fashion to information and data that it otherwise may not receive, thereby further enhancing our ability to identify fraud and root out wrongdoing,’ Schapiro said in the letters.”
Read more here.
Bankruptcy judge approves sale of business newspapers
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A U.S. bankruptcy court judge has OKed the sale of some weekly business newspapers and business magazines owned by Ohio-based Brown Publishing to a new company formed by some of its executives.
Frank Eltman of the Associated Press reports, “Edward Fox, an attorney who represented Brown Publishing, said he was pleased with the judge’s ruling, which he claimed would save 800 jobs. ‘We’re very happy that business will continue,’ Fox said.
“Thomas Clark Carlson, an investment banker appointed to oversee the sale, echoed the attorney’s comments.
“‘I’m pleased the court gave its approval,’ he said moments after the judge made the ruling late Thursday afternoon. ‘We’re happy to be going forward with the sale.’
“Brown Media Holdings Co. and Brown Publishing Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief in May. Newspapers, which get the bulk of their revenue from advertisements, have been struggling in the economic recession and from reliance by news consumers on websites and other nonprint resources. Brown is the latest of several publishers that filed for bankruptcy protection.”
Read more here.
The company owns the Des Moines Business Record in Iowa, the Fort Worth Business Press in Texas and the Boulder County Business Report in Colorado and a majority ownership of the Northern Colorado Business Report in Fort Collins, and the Wyoming Business Report in Cheyenne.
It also owns the Charleston Regional Business Journal, the Columbia Regional Business Report, SC Biz and GSA Business, all in South Carolina. It also owns Utah Business magazine.
LexisNexis owner backs banks in dispute over stock recommendations
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Publishing company Reed Elsevier, which owns LexisNexis, is asking a federal appeals court to uphold a finding that TheFlyOnTheWall.com misappropriates banks’ ‘hot news’ by reposting their stock recommendations.
Wendy Davis of MediaPost writes, “Reed Elsevier says in a recent court filing that it could face ‘devastating economic effects’ if it lost the ability to prevent other publishers from summarizing its time-sensitive material. The company runs news services like The Pink Sheet Daily, which offers updated news about the biopharmaceutical industry, and ICIS.com, a news service about the chemical industry. It also owns the LexisNexis databases.
“‘Reed Elsevier has invested and continues to invest billions of dollars in the collection, organization, and verification of the information provided through these services in print, email, and via the internet,’ the company says in its legal papers, adding that laws preventing misappropriation prevent ‘economically destructive conduct by those who wish to reap where they have not sown.’
“The current legal debate about hot news stems from a lawsuit by Barclays, Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, alleging that the site TheFlyOnTheWall.com unlawfully posted summaries of the banks’ time-sensitive research before their clients received the information.”
Read more here. The Associated Press, the parent company of American City Business Journals, the New York Times Co. and other media companies have also filed an amicus brief in the case.
Police forced to apologize to Chinese business reporter
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Chinese police who put a business reporter on the country’s most wanted list for writing critically about a company have been forced to apologize to the journalist.
Loretta Chao of The Wall Street Journal writes, “Qiu Ziming, a reporter for the Economic Observer, wrote a series of articles for the newspaper starting last month that accused managers at Zhejiang Kan Specialty Material Co., a Shenzhen-listed paper manufacturer, of illegal activities including insider trading and embezzlement. On July 23, police in Suichang County, where Kan Specialty Material is located, added Mr. Qiu to a list of wanted criminals for ‘damaging a company’s business reputation.’ Mr. Qiu and his family went into hiding to avoid being detained, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“The police move prompted widespread criticism, as word of the affair spread over the Internet through Twitter-like microblogging services that are becoming increasingly popular in China. Then, on Thursday afternoon, the public security bureau in Lishui City, which oversees Suichang County, issued a notice on its website announcing that the Suichang authorities would be required to apologize and to remove Mr. Qiu from the list because the detention order didn’t meet legal requirements.
“Kan Specialty Material has steadfastly denied wrongdoing, and the merits of Mr. Qiu’s accusations couldn’t be independently confirmed. Mr. Qiu couldn’t be reached for comment.”
Read more here. Read the Economic Observer’s account of what Qiu wrote here.
Chinese business reporter wanted by police — for covering company
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Local police in east China have named a business reporter wanted for damaging the reputation of a company in the area, his newspaper said Wednesday.
Tania Brangian of The Guardian in London writes, “The offence of ‘fabricating and disseminating false information that harms the business or product reputation of another’ can result in a sentence of two years. Police are supposed to use it only if significant damage has resulted or other circumstances make the crime particularly serious.
“The Economic Observer said the public security bureau of Suichang county, in Lishui, Zhejiang province, had added Qiu Ziming‘s name to a national ‘wanted’ list.
“‘We are deeply shocked that our reporter Qiu Ziming has been listed as a wanted criminal due to engaging in standard news reporting in relation to the listed Zhejiang Kan Specialties Material Company and we’re deeply concerned about the welfare of the journalist and his family,’ it said in a statement.
“‘As a responsible media outlet, this newspaper has always upheld the principles of rational and constructive reporting; we believe that Qiu Ziming, along with all our journalists, has abided by the principles of objective and fair reporting.’”
Read more here.
