Upcoming Business Wire Events – March 23 Edition

Join Business Wire experts in your area for media breakfasts, panel discussions and other insightful events. We bring local media members and industry thought leaders to your market to discuss today’s most relevant topics, from writing for SEO to marketing with social media. Best of all, Business Wire events are usually free of charge. Check out some of our upcoming events in your area:

Biotech Reporting: Meet the Media Covering the Emerging Industry

Hosted by Business Wire San Francisco

Join Business Wire San Francisco and a panel of biotech editors for our Conference Series Media Breakfast. Ian Malcolm, Head of Membership Development at BayBio, moderates a panel including Marcus Wohlsen, Biotech Reporter, The Associated Press; Ron Leuty, Biotech Reporter, San Francisco Business Times; and Andrew Pollack, Health Editor & Deputy SF Bureau Chief, Bloomberg News. The panel will share and discuss how they report on the players and the emerging industries in the Bay Area, and add their perspective on this important topic. Attendees will come away with an enhanced understanding of best practices in biotech media relations. This event is free for Business Wire and BayBio members & $15 for non-members.

Tuesday, March 24 at 8:30am PST
Business Wire SF Headquarters
44 Montgomery Street, 32nd Floor Bay Room, San Francisco, CA 94104

To register: RSVP to Sandy Donnelly at Sandy.Donnelly@BusinessWire.com or call 415.986.4422, ext. 561 by Friday, March 20th.

Meet the Media: Communicating During the Recession

Hosted by Business Wire Newport Beach

Join Chris Meyer, Deputy Editor at the Orange County Register; Sarah Tolkoff, Tech Reporter for the Orange County Business Journal; and Michele Gile, News Reporter for CBS 2/KCAL 9 for a discussion and Q&A on business trends and opportunities for your company to increase its exposure to the media, with a focus on how to communicate with your audiences during this time of economy uncertainty. This is a free event for Business Wire members and is $25 for non-members who RSVP by March 20 and $35 at the door.

Thursday, March 26 at 8am PST
The Island Hotel
690 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach, CA

To register: RSVP to NPRSVP@BusinessWire.com by Tuesday, March 24 for early bird price (but admission is available at the door). Call 949.757.1021 with any questions.

Features: What Editors are Looking For and How to Write a Successful One

Hosted by Business Wire Atlanta

Nedra Rhone of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nicole D. Smith from Atlanta Woman and Stephanie David of skirt! headline a panel of editors discussing how to enhance your communications program by learning more about the value of an effectively written Features news release. Learn what materials editors find most useful and how they make decisions about what copy to use. This is a free event for Business Wire members and $20 for non-members.

Thursday, March 26 at 11am EST
Anthony’s Restaurant
3109 Piedmont Road, NE Atlanta, GA 30305

To register: RSVP by March 23 to Yasmine Holmes at Yasmine.Holmes@BusinessWire.com or call 770.667.7500.

Social Media & IR: What to Look Out For (NIRI Luncheon)

Hosted by NIRI-Arizona – Business Wire Phoenix’s Malcolm Atherton Featured Speaker

Join Business Wire Account Executive & New Media Specialist Malcolm Atherton at this month’s NIRI-Arizona luncheon for a discussion on using social media to enhance business communication. The program will discuss best practices for integrating social media tools, which are constantly changing, into IR communications. Atherton will present case studies and hold an open discussion on this important subject. This event is free for NIRI-Arizona members and $35 for non-members.

Friday, March 27 at 11:30am MST
Capital Grille
Biltmore Fashion Park, 2502 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix, AZ

To register: RSVP by Tuesday March 24 to Heather Beshears at hbeshears@cox.net or call 480.628.0578.

For more upcoming local Business Wire events or to see what’s coming up in our award-winning webinar series, visit http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/business-wire-events.

Upcoming Business Wire Webinars – March 20 Edition

Here at Business Wire, we pride ourselves for being experts in all things press releases. We invite you to join us for our free award-winning webinar series throughout the year. Our industry professionals take you through interactive discussions, digging deep into the latest trends in the business as well as long-asked questions about press release strategy. Here are some of our upcoming free webinars:

Press Release Optimization: Build Your Press Release
Like a Pro

In this webinar we’ll dig deeper into the relationship between your company’s overall Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy and its Press Release Optimization strategy. We’ll examine the concept of Press Release Optimization (PRO)–an effective combination of coding and craft–and provide tips on selecting keywords using Business Wire’s Press Release Builder. The goal? Increased online traction. Join Business Wire SEO experts Maria Van Wambeke and Michael Toner for this free hour-long webinar.

April 2, 2009 at 1pm EST
Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/537557577

For more upcoming Business Wire webinars and events, visit http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/business-wire-events.

Grammar Gossip: A Quotation Quandary

Every month, Business Wire Editor Emily Jones provides useful grammar tips and tricks to help us write better press releases. It’s another edition of Grammar Gossip!

A Quotation Quandary

So many press releases, so many important quotes from important people. With thousands of press releases crossing the wire on a daily basis, it is ever more crucial that you use quotation marks correctly in your releases. Often media want to use the quotes you provide, so having good, clean punctuation shows clarity and an attention to detail. Can you tell which sentences below have the correct usage of quotation marks?

1.    Jerry Seinfeld will be returning to television with a show on marriage, but he insists, “It’s not a therapy show.”

2.    Commenting on her recent weight loss, Lindsay Lohan says “I’ve been eating the same things. I don’t know, it’s probably stress”.

3.    “I’m hoping to be back next year for an award, Miley Cyrus said when attending the Oscars.”

4.    When asked about his upcoming children’s clothing line and its lower prices, Kevin Federline states, “With this economy, I’m looking to do something much more reasonable.” Right…

Answers: Number one and number four use quotation marks correctly, while number two and number three do not. Happy gossiping!

sources: www.msn.com, www.yahoo.com, www.perezhilton.com

Commonly Misspelled Words on press releases:

* chemicals * facilities * reconciliation *

Until next time on Grammar Gossip,
-Emily Jones, Editor, Business Wire Cleveland

Free Webinar Tomorrow On Press Release Optimization

Tomorrow Business Wire is offering the latest in our free webinar series, “Press Release Optimization: Build Your Press Release Like a Pro .”  In this one hour webinar, Maria Van Wambeke and Michael Toner will dig deeper into the relationship between your company’s overall Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy and its Press Release Optimization (PRO) strategy.

We’ll examine the concept of Press Release Optimization (PRO)–an effective combination of coding and craft–and provide tips on selecting keywords using Business Wire’s Press Release Builder. The goal? Increased online traction.

Register here for this event, which starts at 1 pm ET/10 am PT.

“PR vs. SEO” vs. “PR + SEO” vs. “PR is SEO”

There’s an interesting blog conversation going on right now, which grew out of a recent Twitter discussion on the value of PR vs. SEO.  UK PR pro Stuart Bruce kicked things off by trying to define just what PR is for, and how SEO alone can’t accomplish PR’s goals.  The Holistic Search blog responds with discussion of getting PR and SEO teams to work towards a common goal.  Marshall Manson at Edelman Digital then talks about how, ultimately, good PR is good SEO.

Click through and read them all  for valuable discussion and great comments.  I’d like to particularly point out one of Manson’s comments:

My own view is that SEO, literally defined as an effort to improve performance in organic searches for a defined set of key words is far too often nothing more than an organized attempt to trick search engines. Too many SEO firms are selling solutions that involve solutions like paid “link building” and other dubious tactics . . . On the other hand, good online PR is about helping clients connect with audiences on the basis of a shared interest. A key aspect is ensuring that the content of the conversation is real, meaningful, and interesting. Transparency is also vital.

For Business Wire’s part, Manson is right on here.  While we offer a suite of SEO tools, including our Press Release Builder and its keyword analysis and placement functions, all of our tools and advice are in the service of the well-written, properly distributed press release.  All the keywords in the world can’t substitute for good content — if they could, press releases would just consist of a list of keywords and a company name!  (Not that “black hat” SEO/SEM firms haven’t tried things like this.)  Your SEO efforts on press releases need to be part of an engaging story about your company and its news.

And your press releases should be part of an ongoing strategy which includes publishing your news on your own website, properly targeting your news, and building relationships with journalists, bloggers and consumers.  All of these things will help, as one commenter puts it, to make sure your name and your brand are in the right place at the right time when people are looking for them.

“Right Sizing” and Media Layoffs Make for Timely Webinar: From the News Cycle to the Spin Cycle

The dreary news just keeps on coming.

“Right sizing” at PR firms,  reporters laid off at most print dailies…could it possibly be true that Seattle may soon become the first U.S. city without a daily print newspaper? My afternoon walk to Starbucks brought me face-to-face with a reporter friend who confided “I’m applying for a PR job.”   She’s not the only one.

Surely we’re facing tough times in the media business.   Our webinar next week, “From the  News Cycle to the Spin Cycle,” will tackle the topic head on.   What happens when reporters move into public relations?

The panel of former journalists–Bill Day of Valero Energy Corp., Lai Ling Jew of Fenton Communications, Lynn Kettleson of Kettleson Group and David Postman of Vulcan–represent a broad cross section of hard working media folks from all three coasts.   They’ve lived to tell tales of crossing the media aisle and finding a satisfying professional life beyond journalism.   Lai Ling Jew, the only woman at NBC embedded with the military during the initial phase of the Iraq war, concentrates her energies these days on promoting the good deeds of nonprofit organizations.   “I feel more like a journalist than ever,” she said in a pre-webinar conference call.

Don’t miss this FREE, timely webinar, which we provide to our clients and colleagues as a public service in understanding.  Registration is free. 

From the News Cycle to the Spin Cycle:  What I learned on the way to becoming a Public Relations Professional

Thursday, February 19, 2009

10 AM Pacific/Noon Central/1 PM Eastern

Click here to register.

Media Comment on the Value of the Newswires

In a blog post called “Who needs press releases, anyway?”, Robert MacMillan at Reuters has taken notice of companies who aren’t including their full financial reports and other material information in press releases – and in some cases, not issuing press releases at all.

We’ve commented on this issue recently as well. Take a look at MacMillan’s thoughts for a media perspective on the practice.

Dominic: “We’re Just Not That Into You”

While we are not in the habit of engaging in discourse with the blogging equivalent of someone standing in the middle of Park Avenue screaming at the top of his lungs that the world will end unless we sinners repent, it is amusing to us that Mr. Dominic Jones seems to become more and more unhinged as we, as is our right, continually highlight and crystallize the many valid benefits of disclosure via our simultaneous news distribution platform.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and we would be happy to engage in a serious, reality based dialogue with anyone who wishes to discuss the case for website disclosure.  We’ve done so numerous times, in a highly appropriate and professional manner, with the likes of the SEC, the New York Stock Exchange and Sun Microsystems. Though we may not always agree, we all still respect each other.

However, let us be clear that we will not, from this point forward, get ourselves involved in any conversations, online or otherwise, with any self-styled disclosure evangelists who appear unable to have a reasoned, mature, philosophical discussion about a topic on which we disagree, having instead to resort to childish tantrums of name-calling (surprised we haven’t seen “liar, liar pants on fire” from him yet) and even resorting to characterizing highly respected members of the financial media who do not share his opinions as “pimps”.  We choose not to muck around in that mud.

So let us conclude by saying we believe in the value, validity and integrity of our business, and would gladly continue to go into great detail about that with anyone who wishes to hold a reasoned, adult conversation on the topic.  And if, in the end, we cannot convince you of our convictions, we promise not to call you a liar.

—Gregg A. Castano, Co-Chief Operating Officer, Business Wire

Earnings Tables Needed in Releases Say Market Participants

With earnings season in full swing, it’s a good time for us to reiterate a critical best-practice issue:  include earnings tables in your press release.  Notice-and-access, the practice of omitting tabular data from a press release in lieu of a link to the data is clearly a step in the wrong direction. 

We have an ongoing dialogue with the major financial wires, news services, regulatory authorities, investor systems, information portals and investor relations officers about this and other disclosure issues to ensure Business Wire delivers the type of content market participants want. 

The incontrovertible evidence is clear: key market participants want releases to include financial tables (’face financials,’ at the minimum). Additionally, issuers reap tangible economic benefits by including-and broadly disseminating-core financial data to the investment universe. A recent academic study statistically validates the significant return on investment for listed companies that are pro-active in their investor outreach.

In a trading environment where latency and milli-seconds are often critical to success, notice-and-access releases are unnecessary impediments that are disruptive to the seamless workflow procedures favored by both institutional and individual investors.

Providing core financial data to editors, analysts and investors in a freely accessible press release—transmitted simultaneously and in real-time—consolidates material information in a readily digestible format, streamlining both availability and analysis.

An informal survey of key market observers lends independent credence to the argument:

“We would very much like to see the tables included as part of a release,” said Rick Stine, senior editor, Americas, Dow Jones News Services. “Companies that include truncated data in the text of a release are often highlighting the numbers they want you to see, not the GAAP numbers that they are ultimately required to report. We believe it is important for them to continue reporting in the easiest fashion possible the GAAP numbers. Having to make people take extra steps to find them to me isn’t a great idea. I do think convenience for readers is important.”

Martin Howell, news editor, company news, the Americas, Reuters News, said, “We always need the table—it helps us on speed, it helps us to be fair, it helps us to compare and contrast, it helps us to get beyond the spin. Why would anyone drop the tables unless they had something to hide?”

The National Investor Relations Institute [NIRI] arrived at similar conclusions in its recent study of industry “best practices.”  NIRI’s soon-to-be published Earnings Release Standards of Practice makes the following recommendations:

1. Content    a. Provide sufficient line-item information for the investor to follow the calculation from revenue to net income    b. Use a consistent format to display shares outstanding
2. Provide a complete income statement, with current and year-ago quarter numbers, and current year-to-date and year-ago year-to-date comparable period numbers. To avoid confusion, label numbers as audited or unaudited, particularly at year-end if the released numbers are not yet audited and could change in the 10-K filing. Income statement should include number of shares outstanding, fully diluted and basic, for each publicly listed stock
3. Provide a complete balance sheet, with current quarter numbers and end of prior-year numbers, labeled as audited or unaudited
4. Provide cash flow tables, if possible. Both the CFA Institute and the SEC’s CIFiR Committee recommend inclusion of cash flow tables. However, some companies note that this information may not be finalized at the time the earnings release is issued.
5. Provide consistent supplemental company or segment information as appropriate.

There also are financial rewards for issuers that are truly committed to communicating with investors.  Eugene Soltes, a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, found a statistically significant relationship between greater dissemination of company-generated news and corresponding capital market benefits, including lower bid-ask spread, increased trading volume and lower idiosyncratic volatility. A key finding: “A reduction in trading costs due to greater dissemination may also contribute to a lower cost of capital.”

As public companies move to adopt recent SEC mandates to XBRL tag financial data, the need and value of these tables will only increase.

Our focus has been on delivering value; we can say with both pride and certainty that we provide tremendous value at a fair price, while also playing a key role in promoting market efficiency. 

We take great pride in having the industry’s only fully XHTML news platform, ready to deliver XBRL tagged information to market participants.

—Neil Hershberg, Senior Vice President, Global Media, Business Wire

Grammar Gossip: The Wonderful World of Who

Every month, Business Wire Editor Emily Jones provides useful grammar tips and tricks to help us write better press releases. It’s Grammar Gossip!

The Wonderful World of Who

Who’s excited for the Oscars? I’m guessing the people whose favorite movies are nominated are.

A tip for all who are wondering when to use the words “who’s” and “whose” in press releases: who’s is a contraction for who is and whose is the possessive. A simple way to test this piece of grammar excellence is to read the sentence out loud: which makes sense, who is or whose?

Kate Winslet is a fine actress who’s very close to her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio. (Kate Winslet is a fine actress who is very close….makes sense!)

I do not know whose dress will be lovelier, Penelope Cruz’s or Angelina Jolie’s. (I do not know who is dress will be…nope, must be whose!)

sources: www.dictionary.com, www.apstylebook.com

Commonly Misspelled Words on press releases:

* promised * landscape * company *
Until next time on Grammar Gossip,
-Emily Jones, Editor, Business Wire Cleveland