Corporate America bows its head

Reuters - September 11, 2002

The collective voice of American business--ordinarily singing a steady, if discordant chorus of news ranging from product launches to profit forecasts--has fallen silent Wednesday, in deference to the terrorist attacks last Sept. 11. Most of corporate America is expected to avoid typical corporate chatter and instead focus on commemorating attacks that hit New York and Washington.

Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq Stock Market and the American Stock Exchange will delay opening until 8 a.m. PT so traders can attend memorial ceremonies. Trading on the Instinet electronic brokerage will also be suspended until 10 minutes before the markets open.

"Volume is likely to be very thin, a lot of people will forego trading and sit back and reflect," said Steve Previs at Jeffries International.

Few companies want to appear indifferent to a tragedy that left almost 3,000 people dead. Others realize there's common business sense behind keeping the corporate news window shut.

"You run into two problems--one is, if it's something for which you want attention, you're not going to get very much of it," said Frank Oviatt, co-chairman of the Institute for Public Relations. "And if it's something for which you don't want to get attention, you're nevertheless going to really look like you're trying to hide it on Sept. 11."

At the New York office of press release distribution agency PR Newswire, the volume of corporate news set to run Wednesday is down 90 percent from regular levels. Business Wire, the other major U.S. press release distributor, likewise expects a quiet day.

Public relations agencies are also driving home the message, telling clients to hold off on press releases until later in the week or month. Robert Dilenschneider, chairman of public relations firm Dilenschneider Group, bluntly told a client eager to promote a product ready for launch in mid-September to simply wait.

"We've told many companies: Don't put out material on the 11th or 12th because it will be lost in the welter of data on Sept. 11,'" said Dilenschneider.

Although the flow of releases Wednesday will slow to a trickle, the floodgates won't remain closed for too long.

"Basically what we're looking at is a one-day slowdown out of a respect," said Dave Armon, president of PR Newswire in the Americas region.