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Covering a New Company in Town

By Jill Jorden Spitz, Arizona Daily Star, and Jonathan Blum, Jonathan Blum editorial The Arizona Daily Star, October 2006.

You just got word that a new company is coming to town. Here are some tips for compiling a thorough and well-rounded story by deadline. General reporting tips come first, followed by suggestions for examining financial data.

Getting started

Searching your paper’s archives, then look online to find everything you can about the company.

Call trade associations the company is likely to belong to (Google “trade association” and the name of the industry). Ask about the company specifically and also get a wealth of information on the industry, including market share, trends and growth projections.

Call the editor of an industry trade publication or two. Trade pubs are good sources of company and industry insight.

If the workforce is organized, call the union. Not only are officials almost always willing to talk without fear of retribution, but they’ll hook you up with other employees as well.

Find employees. Google the company name and the word “résumé.” Contact the company’s retirees’ organization if there is one. Search for employee chat rooms or message boards. Inquire about retiree groups. And don’t forget about labor unions – union members will talk when other workers won’t. Ask every current and past employee you talk with for a copy of the company directory. Many people still have them and are willing to share.

Find customers. For individual customers, search the name of the company along with “complaints.” Try www.planetfeedback.com/consumer, which lists customer complaints and compliments. For larger-scale customers, call major suppliers and distributors.

Find executives. Filing with the SEC or your state's Secretary of State will give you names of current and future executives and board members. Keep trying – someone will talk.

Find competitors. They know a lot about how the company does business and often are willing to talk on background and sometimes on the record. For obvious reasons, fact-check everything they say.

Find outside voices. Use search engines, services like profnet.com and local universities to find scholars, economists, consultants or independent experts on particular companies or industries.

Use the company Web site, a current search engine, and The Wayback Machine (www.archive.org) to find press releases the company has issued.

Look for state and federal lawsuits filed against or by the company. Check for bankruptcy filings. To do this, visit your local U.S. Bankruptcy court or, if your paper has a Pacer account, access all federal bankruptcy filings online for a fee.

Find out if the company is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and what substances it is releasing (www.epa.gov). Click on “where you live” and enter ZIP codes for the company’s headquarters and sites.

Find out what the company is dumping and releasing. Visit the Toxic Release Inventory at data.rtknet.org/tri/, a database of releases and transfers of toxic chemicals from manufacturing sites.

Check the company’s record of worker safety by checking with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.html).

Find out what patents the company has and is seeking (www.uspto.gov).

Dig into the financials

If the company is publicly traded

1. Use your computer to learn all you can about the company. If you have a Bloomberg or Reuters terminal, punch in the company name and you’re off and running. Pay special attention to company versus sector performance, relevant news and basic ratios — year over year, trended and charted.
   
   If your paper subscribes to Lexis Nexis and Factiva, those ar e great resources, too. Also spend some time reading about the company on the Google or Yahoo finance pages.
   
   At google.com/finance, you’ll find a summary of the company, key facts about it, a list of top management and links to financial statements. You’ll also find information about the sector, which will help you to compare this company with others in its field, as well as specifics on other major players in the sector. Also at your fingertips are links to news about the company and even blogs, which are great for getting a sense of the industry gossip and who’s saying and predicting what about the company.
   
   finance.yahoo.com has a lot of the same information, although some of it is a bit more difficult to find. It also offers handy trend comparison charts, as well as a wealth of analyst opinions and estimates, which are available free, as well as research reports, which are available for a fee.
2. Look through the company’s most recent annual report to get a sense of how it presents itself.
3. Read recent and past Securities and Exchange Commission documents. You can find financial documents and proxy statements at www.sec.gov, hoovers.com or your paper’s Bloomberg or Reuters terminal or via subscription services like EDGAR Online (access.edgar-online.com) or 10k-Wizard (www.10kwizard.com). Look for the 10-K (annual report), 10-Q (quarterly report), 8-K (form that must be filed within four days of a material event) and 14-A (proxy statement, or annual meeting information). Keep in mind that 10Qs are unaudited (see SABEW's training home page for a separate tip sheet on SEC filings.)
   
   Read all you have time to read. If you’re pressed, pull the balance sheet and the income statements for the quarter over quarter and annual results and use a spreadsheet to compare the results from the two periods.
4. Once you’ve researched the company, start making phone calls. Try:
   • Analysts, either buy-side analysts who work for portfolio managers or institutional investors, or sell-side analysts, who work for investment banks and brokerage firms.
   • Mutual fund managers
   • Hedge fund managers
   • Short sellers
   • Local brokers
   
   Your Bloomberg or Reuters terminal can help you find the sources mentioned above. Also try Googling the title and the name of the company. Or try Gartner (www.gartner.com).
   
   Note: Analysts and fund managers can be hard to reach, especially if you’re from a small paper, so leave a lot of messages — including some for analysts who work off Wall Street. And don’t forget local brokers — they’re much easier to reach and usually much more willing to talk.
5. Search the company’s debt. At Fitch (fitchratings.com), you can get credit ratings, the company’s outlook and see rated issues. You’ll also find names of the company’s bond analysts for the company. At cxa.marketwatch.com/finra/MarketData/, find real-time data on how the bonds are trading. Use this information to piece together the company’s bond history and get a sense of how the market values the company’s ability to repay its debts.
6. Don’t forget the little details that help put a company in context. For example, tell readers how much the top executives make. You’ll find this information in the company’s 14-A proxy statement. Make sure you include perks like bonuses and stock options.

If it’s privately held

Start at the Secretary of State’s Web site in the state where the company is based. This office has information on every business incorporated in the state, including names of executives and officers and company contact information.

Check Uniform Commercial Code records, available through each state’s State Department. They can tell you to whom the business owes money.

Many small businesses are registered with the Small Business Administration to qualify for contracts and qualify for benefits. Search for information about the business there, at dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm.

If it’s a nonprofit

1. Visit www.guidestar.org. You’ll find information about nonprofits all over the country, including the 990 forms larger ones must file with the IRS.
2. Next stop: www.charitynavigator.org. This searchable database evaluates nonprofits.
3. Check out the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance. Its reports evaluate nonprofits based on the BBB’s charity standards.
4. Faith-based organizations don’t have to file 990s — but many do anyway. So always look for the 990 rather than assume it’s not there.

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