IR Magazine reports fake interview as fact — updated

IF SHE isn’t already, IR Magazine’s Anna Snider is going to be kicking herself when she learns that she’s the only journalist on the Web who didn’t get the joke.

In Friday’s IR Magazine Week, Snider reports as fact that earnings call imposter Joe Herrick, who has been making a nuisance of himself since mid-January, has “surfaced again” in an interview with Broc Romanek, editor of thecorporatecounsel.net.

Problem is, the “interview” she quotes from never happened. It was recorded by Romanek as a joke and posted online on February 18, along with many clues that it was fake.

How exactly IR Magazine missed the fact that the “interview” was fictional I’m not sure, but the result is that Snider’s story quoting Romanek’s interview with himself was the main story in the America’s edition of the weekly. IR Magazine claims a readership of 32,000 investor relations professionals.

IR Magazine reports the fictional interview as fact.

For posterity (I’m assuming they’ll delete it soon), here’s the full report:

Earnings call imposter gives interview

Feb 29, 2008

‘You will hear from me again,’ he says

NEW YORK — The earnings call hoaxer featured in the excellent Wall Street Journal story ‘Analyze this’ has surfaced again, this time in a personal interview with blogger Broc Romanek on thecorporatecounsel.net.
In a few brief comments, Joe Herrick, who has posed questions on at least seven earnings calls in February, told Romanek he was doing this for ‘the thrill of the game’ and as ‘just something to do to keep myself amused.’
His questions on the calls sound just enough like a real analyst’s for the companies to take him seriously. But some of his ‘crazy efficiency questions’ and his drilling in on the same subject of Six Sigma management techniques across a range of companies got people asking just who he was.
Executives, including those at Molson Coors Brewing, Dean Foods and PepsiCo, may have been puzzled, but have tried their best to answer him. None of his questions were that disruptive, but observers have been wondering why he he bothers. Notoriety around the situation is leading some companies and conferencing providers to run tighter screening of who is on a call.
Herrick wouldn’t give Romanek his real name (‘The authorities are simply too interested,’ he explained), though he did indicate he is based in New York. His accent over the course of the call shifted between Southern US, Dutch and British.
‘I dare say you will hear from me again,’ Herrick says.
By Anna Snider

I don’t know what’s funnier, the fact that Snider missed the disclaimer that “the speaker may be fictional,” or that she actually took the time to transcribe “Herrick’s” comments from the obviously contrived interview, even noting his weird accent changes. (Anna, you have to laugh about that now.)

Broc confirms that he was not contacted by IR Magazine about his “scoop.”

Now how do you write a correction for something like this?

UPDATE March 3
The IR Magazine story now has the following correction at the top:

UPDATE - MARCH 3: We still await positive identification and clarification of the future plans of ‘Joe Herrick,’ the hoaxer who has participated, apparently pointlessly, in a number of recent earnings calls. He did not resurface in a recording on thecorporatecounsel.net, as we reported last week. Blog editor Broc Romanek confirms that he was impersonating Herrick as his own prank. We apologize for the error.

I now expect you will see much more rigorous editorial controls and more probing journalism from IR Mag.

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