"Facts and Figures"
4/2008

Index


There's nothing like a crisis to bring a subject into sharp relief. The current contraction of the world's economic markets has brought into the open the countless modes of communications that underpin the market economy we operate in. Aroused by the decline of the global capital markets, political leaders have now unanimously expressed their will to create stricter accounting principles for the financial sector. Communications professionals from banks and investor companies will face more challenges in the future. But professional financial communications is not only crucial to them. Any stock listed company has to deal with its specific stakeholders - analysts, investors and business journalists. Even private owned companies must face up to a growing need for explaining their facts and figures in order to convince their financiers. Financial communications is a demanding discipline. It touches on corporate communications and investor relations, annual reports and media briefings, stock analysis and legal regulations. In this issue of Communication Director magazine, we have tried to present a lineup of different voices in the field of financial communications, touching on issues as diverse as money laundering, mergers and acquisitions, stock market flotations, annual reports and social media. Arindam Nag from Dow Jones Newswires talks about the role of the media before, during and after the crisis. And for an idiosyncratic take on the international financial meltdown, we feature an article on how to delicately handle a media that is permanently on the lookout for bad news. I hope you take value from this, the final edition of Communication Director for 2008.

Marc-Oliver Voigt
Editor-in-Chief
m.voigt@communication-director.eu