Accounting Gets Its Own Tabloid; SEC Offers Email News

With yesterday marking the 40th anniversary of the landing of the first man on the moon (NASA article; Newseum video; R.E.M. song), a number of blogs, like CPA Success and Principled Innovation, challenged readers to consider what the next really big innovation will be, and to strive toward their vision.

Perhaps coincidentally (?) one new development taking place yesterday that was not on the radar screen 40 years ago: the launch of the world's first online accounting 'tabloid' which goes by the name: Going Concern. The new entrant joins Dealbreaker, Above the Law, and Fashionista as part of BreakingMedia.com's stable of what I'd call infotainment blogs. David Lat, managing editor of BreakingMedia.com is a Yale Law School grad whose experience includes stints at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, law firm Wactell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In an article entitled, New Finance Blog Aims to 'Make Accounting Sexy,' Gavin O'Malley of Online Media Daily said of the new blog: "Helmed by Caleb Newquist, a blogger and former auditor and tax accountant for KPMG, the site will also take on issues like budgeting and reporting, corporate finance and tax, cost management as a political priority, governance, risk and compliance, and cash management." Newquist made a name for himself as a blogger thru his blog, The10-Key Tramp. (Another thing I find interesting about Newquist is he has degrees from Colorado State University and the University of Nebraska, a combination not unlike that of a certain former Chief Accountant at the SEC, although they attended the two schools in a different order.)

Congrats to our friend, blogger Francine McKenna of Re: The Auditors, who will be a contributing writer on the Going Concern blog. If there's anyone suited to 'make accounting sexy' its Francine, known for her trademark stilettos as she covers conferences in the legal, accounting and compliance community, including FEI's Current Financial Reporting Issues conference last year. Mark your calendars for this year's FEI CFRI conference: Nov. 16-17, 2009 at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square, which like last year will include leading lights from the world of financial reporting, and a great chance to network with peers. McKenna fittingly became a contributing blogger at the Huffington Post this year, and I enjoyed attending two events with her and other blogger colleagues featuring writers and editors from the Huffington Post earlier this year (see here and here). The next person I wouldn't be surprised to see contributing to Going Concern is Adrienne Gonzalez, a contributor to Seeking Alpha and author of her own blog.

SEC Offers Email News
SEC news junkies: did you know you can now subscribe to receive SEC news releases and a host of other types of SEC releases real-time via email? The SEC began offering this service earlier this week, via GovDelivery.com. The email service expands on an earlier service which offered SEC news postings via RSS feed.

John Nester, Director of the Office of Public Affairs at the SEC, described the new email service to me yesterday as follows: "We've provided a menu of our most frequently requested categories of SEC Web site documents for investors, issuers, the securities industry, accountants, law firms and other market participants to choose from. Now, whenever we post a new letter to industry, a proposed rule, or a staff interpretation, for example, the public will get that document within minutes by email. In other words, real time access to our latest information."

Seeing the menu of options to elect real-time delivery of various types of SEC releases (news releases, proposed rules, final rules, investor alerts, no action letters, Staff Accounting Bulletins) made me feel like a kid in a candy store. However, too much of a good thing (especially when you have it sent to your home and work email) is really not that good. Services like Securities Mosaic are very reliable and act as a good filter in keeping up to date on breaking SEC news as well.

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