Now that the quarterly earnings season is drawing to a close you'll see many journalists head to the gym. Why? Because attending one or more earnings briefings a day can really start to impact your waistline, what with all that food that is served. My critique is not of the companies (for a change), but journalists. My old colleagues won't like me for saying this, but the fact is that journalists are fed so well at press conferences that I cannot see how investors can possibly expect to see unbiased, indepth coverage of the companies that are reported on.

I really wonder whether Singaporean investors realise just what a bunch of lazy freeloaders reporters are. Already much of Singapore business journalism is nothing more than an exercise in rewriting press releases (without also reading the statutory announcement). It's the only exercise they get. The news Singapore investors consume is written by people who spend hours at press briefings in hotel ballrooms, consuming wonderful food and beverages which, inevitably, are paid for by shareholders.

The problem started with the fact that companies whose headquarters are not located within a ten minute taxi ride of the Toa Payoh/MacRitchie Reservoir area struggle to get media attention (because a trip out to Jurong and Tuas, or Changi Business Park is oh, so far away). To address this issue, they resort to renting out a function room in an inner-city hotel and serve up a big meal.

What disgusts me is not just that companies do this in the hope that they get more, and more favourable editorial coverage. What disgusts me is that they succeed with this tactic. Journalists lap this sort of thing up and complain audibly when companies don't put on a spread. To think that in other markets journalists refuse the offer of a glass of water from their hosts at press conferences, lest it be seen as interference with the editorial process!

I accept that things are done differently in Asia, and that much more effort goes into welcoming visitors, making them comfortable, offering refreshments and so on. But when it comes to corporate governance and competing in a globalised world, these customs should not apply to journalists under the special circumstances of an earnings briefing.

I have raised this point with David Gerald, the President of the Securities Investors Association (Singapore), who routinely encourages shareholders not to attend Annual General Meetings just for the food. My point is: journalists should not attend press briefings just for the food, then return to the newsroom to rewrite the press release without also reading the statutory announcement.

For as long as companies put on lavish lunches and dinners for reporters, readers and viewers of the financial media cannot possibly expect to be well served.


Mark Laudi, who attended the Banyan Tree earnings briefing at the Fullerton Hotel on Thursday. Yes, he also ate a plate of food so as not to offend his hosts. But he would have been just as happy if no food was served.

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Labels: Banyan Tree, journalists, SIAS