RSS may be that competitor. But last I looked, RSS use, while increasing, was still far less than I personally would expect to be sufficient to pass the test.

This is not a simple issue. SEC regulations exist to protect the public from corporate malfeasance. If they do decide to allow blogs and online sites to be vehicles for material disclosures, they have got to close any possible loopholes.

Which is pretty much what I got from Cox’s letter — they are willing to consider it and are now ready to do the investigation. Has it taken longer than some would like? Maybe, but hey, take what you can get.

One last comment — I’d like to see an apples to apples comparison of blogs and “old media.” While it raises some interesting questions, your article compares two dis-similar things — a comment on Schwartz’s highly read blog about a topical issue and a regular SEC communique. What would be quite interesting would be for a company to release something simultaneously through a newswire and on its blog, and track those results.

All you have to do to replace disclosure releases is appoint a single RSS feed as a company’s official disclosure feed. That feed will be picked up faster than you can imagine.

I do think blogs and Web sites have potential as disclosure vehicles, provided they have sufficient reach. The issue the SEC has to grapple with, and it looks like they finally are, is how to define a rule.

To accept blogs as a mechanism for material disclosure, it won’t be sufficient for some blogs, like Jonathan Schwartz’s, to have reach and deliver media results like those described in your article.

We have to be reasonably assured that ALL blogs used as material disclosure have the necessary reach. Otherwise we create opportunity for abuse far worse than attempting to bury bad news by releasing on a Friday afternoon.

Which is of course what the SEC regs are designed to prevent, and why they move so slowly and deliberately on this stuff.

Congrats on the anniversary. Here’s a poser: What’s more effective for getting information out: An official SEC news release or an unannounced comment on a blog?

I’ve posted the answer here:

http://www.irwebreport.com/daily/2006/11/15/coxs-blog-post-gets-10x-more-media-mentions-than-official-release/