FOLLOWING up on my earlier post about a “notice-and-access” concept for disclosure news releases as a way to cut costs for issuers, I thought it would be interesting to put together a mock release based on an actual company’s quarterly results.Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK), the pharmaceutical giant, reported Q3 2007 earnings earlier today in a traditional earnings news release sent out via a PR wire service. The original wire release is about 4,200 words, which likely costs in the range of $5,000 for U.S. circuit distribution.
I have taken that release and created a mock “notice-and-access” release that is 355 words. The cost of this release would be in the range of $400. (If Merck took advantage of Nasdaq’s trial offer of four free news releases, available to any US-listed company, there’d be no cost.)
Remember that I have simply taken a news release of a random company that reported today to show that this approach can work for any company.
Here’s the mock “notice-and-access” release:
Merck Reports Third-Quarter 2007 Financial Results
WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK), has published its financial results for the third-quarter of 2007.
Access Merck’s Q3 2007 Results Information
All of Merck’s Q3 2007 earnings results information, including a news release, supplemental financial information, and a link to our conference call webcast, can be accessed by visiting the following page on Merck’s website:http://www.merck.com/finance/quarterlyFinancials.html
Direct Links to Individual Disclosures
Merck Q3 2007 Earnings News Release
http://www.merck.com/newsroom/press_releases/financial/2007_1022.htmlor
http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/73/731/73184/items/265730/
MRK_3Q07_NewsRelease_Final.pdf (PDF 115KB, 13 pages)Other Financial Disclosures
http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/73/731/73184/items/265731/
MRK_3Q07_Other_Financial_Disclosures.pdf (PDF 68KB, 3 pages)Filings on SEC website
Should you require it, Merck’s Q3 2007 earnings release can be obtained in a Form 8-K filing on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website:
http://sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000064978&owner=include&count=40Earnings Conference Call
Investors are invited to a live audio webcast of Merck’s third-quarter earnings conference call today at 9 a.m. EDT http://www.merck.com/newsroom/webcast/. Institutional investors and analysts can participate in the call by dialing (706) 758-9927 or (877) 381-5782. Journalists are invited to listen in on the call by dialing (706) 758-9928 or (800) 399-7917. A replay of the webcast will be available starting at 11 a.m. EDT today through 5 p.m. EDT on Oct. 29. To listen to the replay, dial (706) 645-9291 or (800) 642-1687 and enter ID # 1990767.A text transcript of the call and an MP3 file will be posted within 12 hours of the conference call’s conclusion.
Get Merck News Direct
You can receive news direct from Merck via RSS or email.Subscribe to our RSS feeds:
Subscribe to our Investor Email Alerts:
http://www.merck.com/finance/email_alerts.html
About Merck
Merck & Co., Inc. is a global research-driven pharmaceutical company dedicated to putting patients first. Established in 1891, Merck discovers, develops, manufactures and markets vaccines and medicines to address unmet medical needs. The Company devotes extensive efforts to increase access to medicines through far-reaching programs that not only donate Merck medicines but help deliver them to the people who need them. Merck also publishes unbiased health information as a not-for-profit service. For more information, visit www.merck.com.Contact:
Merck & Co., Inc.
Media:
Amy Rose, 908-423-6537
or
Chris Garland, 908-423-3461
or
Investors:
Graeme Bell, 908-423-5185Source: Merck & Co., Inc.
There are a number of other links that companies could include in their notices or on their websites. However, in this case I am simply using what Merck currently makes available. I would change some things on Merck’s website to improve the format of the demo notice release, such as using shorter URLs or redirects, but the model still works, particularly now that Yahoo! Finance is starting to support XHTML.
In fact, I think it’s better than the release the company sent out via Business Wire today because it drives people to the full slate of information, and because it encourages people to stay in touch with the company directly. Oh, and it’s 10 times cheaper, too.
Again, I welcome your comments and suggestions on this concept.
Related:
A “notice-and-access” model for news releases
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Interesting idea. Do you have any information from investors on what they think about this idea?
I continue to be concerned about companies’ ability to connect with stakeholders who are not regularly online. I know this is not a huge number of active shareholders, but some of the offline investors ARE interested, and (especially for micro- and small-cap companies) the financial papers do NOT do an adequate job of reporting results. ROB reporters openly state that they have no interest in TSX-V stocks or stocks that trade under $1.00. Yes, IROs can send shareholders hard copy, and of course their brokers will forward the information, but by the time they get it the news is quite stale. For me, this situation will get worse as several of my clients have shareholders in countries where online access can be challenging — in South America and Asia. Seems to me globalization will continue to make this an issue.
On the online side, I really like your suggested “short-form” release. It saves quantities of time and money, and also keeps errors from slipping into press releases into which data has been ported from the financials and the MD&A.
Hi Julie,
Actually, we’ve been pushing a version of this idea with some of our clients and they have cut the size of their releases after consulting their investors. There is a difference between this approach we are now pushing and what these companies have been doing, though. They still include a summary of the key news highlights, and in this approach we are saying the release should be a notice and include no news. The news should be presented in full on the company’s site. Why? So that investors get the full story. It also makes life easier for the IRO because you aren’t worrying if you’re leaving important details out of your news release.
Robin,
Not sure what to do about the offline investor community, especially those investing in smaller companies.
Since you’re in Canada, you might be interested in this earnings release from Dundee Wealth. It’s a notice-style release, and given that the people issuing it are essentially investors themselves, that should say something right there. They’ve been doing this for a long time.
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=760277&k=
All of 161 words! You have to love it!
And it’s especially interesting since Canadian firms issue some of the longest news releases on the planet (for no good reason).
Dominic, I know this comment comes months after the original post but – in response to Robin – our surveys of small-cap investors shows that 99% of them use the web to conduct research.
These surveys were conducted off-line at conferences. Otherwise, online surveys of online habits would be skewed.
As such, it is a non-issue on the small-cap side.
If you need links to the surveys, let me know.
Regards,
George
Hi Dominic – companies in sub-Saharan Africa particularly Kenya (new legislation) and Zimbabwe are ignoring legislation when it comes to distribution of hard-copy shareholder proxy information and annual reports. The regulators are asleep. Investors ignorant. And companies are not even making the information available online in any form.
Given the environment we find ourselves in in Zimbabwe we will be adopting your suggestions as a means for our clients to mitigate systemic risk of not communicating effectively with the investment community – there will be tears one day – when that one shareholder (or group of shareholders) that counts, doesn’t get the documents they need.
How to get the message across from our perspective is the key thing in my life at the moment because everyone is too busy, until one day when they have to pay attention.
Sorry, small rant from Africa!!