Financial Media Membership Organization

The Financial Media Forum (the “Forum”) is a membership association, whose goal is to promote ethical standards and consumer confidence in the financial publishing industry.

With significant shifts in the way content is distributed, brought about by social media and by financial news aggregators like SeekingAlpha, Yahoo! Finance, and Google News, the influence of independent financial media is greater than ever. Financial media are now playing a key role in shaping attitudes towards publicly traded companies, both large and small.

We believe that the financial media industry would benefit greatly from adopting minimum standards of conduct, and distinguishing members who adhere to those standards. Such standards should go beyond the minimum legal requirements of fair advertising, disclosure of conflicts of interest, and adherence to State and Federal securities laws. They should also include voluntary ethical guidelines that address issues not fully covered by applicable laws.

We believe that by helping to organize the financial media community, we will elevate the best and most respected publishers, and set the stage for future industry growth.

With this in mind, the Financial Media Forum seeks to:

• Foster an actionable dialogue about issues that are important to the publisher community.
• Devise a set of rules and principles that will govern financial media.
• Distinguish media that adhere to the Forum’s Conduct Guidelines.
• Devise a standardized set of Disclosure Guidelines that satisfy governmental regulations and Forum ethics.