Two sides of the coin

Last week we looked at the financial news process, this week we look at the investor relations and financial communications. A good example of the different perspectives on the same story can be seen in how Marriott, the major US global hotel chain operator's latest quarterly results have been covered by CNBC

Then take a look at the financial quarterly announcement made by Marriott's financial PR and investor relations team which set off the coverage of the story by financial media and commentators. You have to go down a long way before you see the announcement that quarterly profit is down compared with the same figure last year - 12 paragraphs down. Interestingly debt is up significantly over a US1bn over the last 9 months. Overall headline for the story is: Marriott International Reports Strong Third Quarter Results. Spin or a fair assessment of underlying trends? Has the media just concentrated too much on the net profit figure? A good contrast of the different agendas for different parts of the communications chain. Remember what the journalists were saying about how skeptical they were of company announcements in last week's academic paper.

What has been the market reaction to the story. Thursday pm, Marriott is trading at 43 dollars, (CNBC) down nearly 3% on the start of the day and down nearly 9% on the year to date. The market is perhaps suggesting that the press are closer to the heart of the story than the Marriott IR team.