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Release Earnings to Co. Site first? Buffet Does it

In A Lack of Transparency in S.E.C. Disclosure Rule, The New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin is the latest journalist to write about the growing trend of publicly-traded companies that post earnings releases directly to their own corporate sites instead of issuing it across a traditional newswire service. Mr. Sorkin references Microsoft's October 27, 2010 "Advisory Release" that announces its new process for publishing its earnings releases. See Microsoft example. 

Mr. Sorkin references the 2006 lobbying efforts to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made by Sun Microsystems' then-CEO Jonathan Schwartz, to allow companies to make announcements via their Web sites.

This trend has been around before Sun Microsystems' efforts. Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway keeps its earnings announcements brief, with up to two pages worth of information, along with text that directs readers back to its corporate site. Berkshire Hathaway has been doing this for many years, both before and after it bought Business Wire in 2006 (see for yourself). IRWebReport, one of the best and most-respected sources of information on online investor relations communications, published a relevant blog post, "Earnings releases — the Warren Buffett way," in February 2008. It is worth a read.

It makes sense for Mr. Sorkin to include in his article today a quote from Cathy Baron Tamraz, chairwoman and chief executive of Business Wire; Tamraz also wrote a tough blog post about Microsoft's move.   

Where can I learn more?

Google and Microsoft are not the only ones issuing an advisory release.  Interested in learning more about the advisory release? We encourage you to see IRWebReport's September 21, 2010 post Step by step: how to do an advisory earnings release.  For the first-timers, the most important step in making the transition is to announce your change over the wires and give everyone at least 2 weeks of public notice.

Here's a bibliography of related posts which may be of interest - many of them are from IRWebReport. Are there others? Add yours in the comment box.

• February 14, 2007 NYSE in disclosure dark ages (Source:IRWebReport)

• January 20, 2008 NYSE's antiquated Timely Alert Policy (Source: IRWebReport)

• February 4, 2009 NYSE to change policy on websites for disclosure (Source: IRWebReport)

• April 19, 2009 NYSE, NASDAQ move to scrap compulsory news releases (Source: IRWebReport)

• April 16, 2010 Google moves to web disclosure for Reg. FD (Source: IRWebReport)

• July 5, 2010 Advisory news releases are catching on (Source: IRWebReport)

• July 13, 2010 How Expedia uses advisory releases (Source: IRWebReport)

• July 26, 2010 The launch of Twitter hashtag @investorhq which is described in its Twitter profile as "News & info from companies no longer using the wire to distribute earnings releases, but are using an Advisory Release and Online Newsroom instead." 

• July 26, 2010 Steve Momorella, co-founder of TEKGROUP Online Newsroom, launches Twitter hashtag @advisoryrelease to follow organizations using advisory releases instead of the costly wire and launched on November 4, 2010 @earningsHQ to follow organizations using web disclosure.

• July 26, 2010 Nokia cuts PR wire earnings release to 41 words  (Source: IRWebReport)

• July 28, 2010 Google’s advisory release increased web referrals 88% (Source: IRWebReport)

• August 12, 2010 The Advisory Release: The Latest Trend for IROs to Cut Costs and Increase Shareholder, Analyst, and Financial Media Awareness. (Source: TekGroup; also published by IRAlert)

• August 17, 2010 41% of heavily traded US-listed international firms shun PR wires (Source:IRWebReport)

• September 21, 2010 Step by step: how to do an advisory earnings release (Source:IRWebReport)

• September 21, 2010 The Basics on Advisory Releases (Source: InsuranceIR)

• October 28, 2010 Microsoft latest to dump PR wires for earnings releases (Source: IRWebReport)

• October 28, 2010 Microsoft joins streamlined earnings club  Commentary: Company saves pennies and powers through earnings (Source: Marketwatch)

• November 3, 2010: Microsoft Needs to Get its Head Out of the Cloud When it Comes to Disclosure (Source: Cathy Baron Tamraz, Chairman and CEO of Business Wire)