Saturday Mornings, a Frothy Latte and The Wall Street Journal

Ever since The Wall Street Journal started publishing on Saturdays, I have more-than-ever appreciated the print edition, relaxing unrushed with a latte to read just about every story.

Aside from major news, which all of us see from many media, it seems like on Saturdays, the Journal always publishes some interesting pieces that go largely unnoticed by other publications. This past weekend was no exception.

There was a near full-page feature about where to go for the best ice cream sundae in New York City (the Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain); a story about walking in Los Angeles’ new downtown Arts District; a column about the rise of the “polypill,” an all-in-one capsule that will lower your cholesterol, take down your blood pressure and reduce your blood sugar at the same time; and a practical treatise touting the benefits of wearing seersucker swimming shorts.

With my business hat on, however, the one that caught my eye was the “Intelligent Investor” column by Jason Zweig. I had spoken with Jason during the week as he was researching his column, which focused on how, over the recent years, America’s individual shareholders have essentially disappeared from view.

Jason pointed to an antiquated SEC rule, dating back to 1934, stating that if a company has fewer than 300 shareholders, it can deregister and “go dark,” saving the company certain costs and also eliminating the communications transparency that shareholders, and I and my colleagues as professional corporate communicators, all hold near and dear.

In part because of technology, most investors for many years have been buying shares in electronic form. They hold those shares in brokerage accounts, rather than seeking share certificates from the issuers. The actual record holders in essence have become the brokerages. One record holder possibly could represent thousands of individual investors.

The practicality of the brokerages forwarding to their customers all the news that an issuer distributes is just about nil. Moreover, if a company goes dark, requirements for widely issuing any news is significantly reduced. As is the point of Jason’s column, if an issuer wants to tune out almost completely and deregister, it would be pretty easy. That’s a frightening thought that over time could significantly diminish valuation for all holders.

Fortunately, most of the companies going dark are not main stream, and in our observation, are typically quite small and usually not of the highest investment grade. Perhaps, however, it is time for the SEC to look at this rule and increase that 300 minimum number for the benefit of all shareholders.

Nice piece, Jason. Hopefully you haven’t given any ideas to too many issuers! As to other stories in Saturday’s edition, there also was an interesting one headlined, “The Cure for Decision Fatigue.” Perhaps I should have had a cappuccino instead of a latte?

—Roger Pondel, rpondel@pondel.com