Short Interests: Trade journal turning the page again

Investment Advisor is about to change hands for the second time in a little over two years.

The monthly trade magazine will be included in the sale of Wicks Business Information LLC to an as-yet-undisclosed buyer.

The effects on the publication will be minimal, according to Douglas J. Manoni, CEO of Wicks in Fairfield, Conn., noting that he and the remainder of the parent company’s management intend to stay in place.

But he says the firm should be better capitalized under a new owner, allowing it to try more initiatives such as conferences and online data services. The 10-magazine firm derives 30% of its revenues from subscription database products and just 14% from advertising, though Investment Advisor depends almost entirely on ads for revenue.

Investment Advisor Group was purchased by Wicks in January 2000. The private-equity investors who own the firm decided to sell it now because it has reached their revenue goal of $75 million far sooner than expected. The prospective owner plans to double that figure. Wicks was formed to buy orphaned financial publications of companies such as Thomson Financial, Pearson Publishing Group, Reuters Ltd. and Investment Advisor’s former owner, Dow Jones Financial Publishing Corp.

Keeping bankers off the streets

Marin County is across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, and sometimes people on the Grateful Dead’s former home turf have conflicting ideas about pecuniary matters. The latest evidence is a brouhaha in the northern Marin town of Novato, which has decided to keep banks from operating in street-level spaces in the retail district.

The idea is that banks are no longer places where people very often have to go in person, says the city planning manager, Jennifer Barrett.

But Kim Petrini, president of Novato Community Bank, was quoted by the Marin Independent Journal as saying she sees the actions as “spot zoning.”

She wonders why child-care centers and financial advisers are allowed in the town retail district, while her bank is not.

Beans made fresh daily

To improve financial disclosure, says Robert Litan of the Brookings Institution, companies should release financial reports more frequently – perhaps every day.

“I think ultimately, one day, we ought to get daily financial reports. I know that sounds totally far fetched,” Mr. Litan, vice president and director of the economic studies program at the Washington think tank, said in Chicago recently during round-table discussions the Securities and Exchange Commission conducted on financial disclosure and auditor oversight.

Such an out-of-the-box suggestion is what SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt was looking for. Most of the panel of industry professionals favored summaries and plain English in reports to make them accessible to average investors.