Under the Magnifying Glass

Michelle Leder is editor of Footnoted.org, a daily blog that reveals things companies try to hide in routine SEC filings.

Leder, who has presented at many workshops for the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, also authored Financial Fine Print: Uncovering a Company's True Value, teaching investors to spot various accounting tricks. Footnoted.org was named a Top 10 blog by BusinessWeek, CNN and Financial Times, and a blog for "those in the know" by The Wall Street Journal.The Footnoted.org Web site.

As a freelance journalist, Leder's articles have appeared in The New York Times, Slate, BusinessWeek and Inc magazine. In the decade she spent as business reporter and editor for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Florida, she won several awards, including a Best in Business award by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

Feel free to post your comments related to Leder's opinions and investigative trends in business journalism!

Don't Forget Director Pay

June 19, 2008

Next time you glance over a proxy statement, pay attention to director pay. Their compensation might not be as much as a CEO, but is too important to ignore. More

Disclosure Discovery is Difficult

May 13, 2008

The SEC rules require disclosure of anything that's potentially material. But there's nothing in the giant SEC rule book that requires companies to make it easier for journalists to do their jobs. More

Probing C-level Pay

April 14, 2008

Suddenly, everyone can't seem to talk enough about the paychecks that corporate executives receive. Michelle Leder offers insights on how journalists can examine and explain trends in C-level pay. More

Proxy Perks

March 24, 2008

Michelle Leder looks at the perks being handed out to corporate executives. It's the perks, Leder says, "in all of their weird glory..." More

Filings in the Microsoft/Yahoo/Google Triangle

Feb. 5, 2008

Michelle Leder digs through the early filings in Microsoft's bid for Yahoo. "The SEC filings that are flying fast and furious have all the elements of the type of juicy canoodling normally found on Page Six." More

The Worst Footnote of 2007

Dec. 26, 2007

Michelle Leder lets readers decide on 2007's worst footnote, the craziest item disclosed (or buried) in routine SEC filings. And the winner is... More

SEC Filings Reflect Subprime Fallout

Nov. 5, 2007

The subprime story should be an ongoing concern for reporters, says BusinessJournalism.org blogger Michelle Leder. It's not going away soon, and top CEOs have already have lost jobs because of it. More

Footnoted.org Turns Four, Making it a Blogosphere Dinosaur

September 20, 2007

As a freelancer who works from home, blogging has enabled me to be part of a larger community of smart like-minded people, many of whom have given me lots of excellent (and free) advice over the years. More

Sarbanes-Oxley Disclosures Serve as a Boon for Business Journalists

August 9, 2007

All of the new disclosures related to Sarbanes-Oxley have not only led to better business reporting, they've also helped create more efficient capital markets. More

Details on Executive Comp Lead to Confusion

June 8, 2007

Now that proxy season is essentially over and the deadline associated with crunching executive pay numbers with it, it's time to go back and assess just how well reporters did with getting the numbers right. More

Perk Disclosure Rules Give Companies Cover

April 12, 2007

Revised SEC requirements give companies great latitude when it comes to disclosing just how much it spent on individual perks for company executives. More

Tallying Exec Compensation Still a Challenge Under New SEC Rules

March 14, 2007

Despite new SEC rules put in place last year, chief executives still have a lot of wiggle room in reporting their total compensation packages. More

Under the Magnifying Glass: Business Reporters can Unwrap Company Filings During Holiday Season

December 20, 2006

Tempting as it is to think of the holidays as a dead zone, especially when it comes to business news, the truth is that this is the perfect time of year for companies to bury all kinds of stuff in their routine SEC filings. More

Under the Magnifying Glass: Schedule Reading Time with Company 13Ds

November 21, 2006

Think SEC filings are full of boring legalese that requires an English to accounting-speak translation? Then you obviously haven't been spending much time reading Schedule 13Ds. More

Under the Magnifying Glass: Merger Paper Trail Leads to Eye-Opening Stories

October 2, 2006

Judging by the almost daily stream of headlines, buyout fever is back. Which means it's a good time to brush up on the paper trail that companies typically produce during the merger process. More

Under the Magnifying Glass: CEOs May Operate Above Real Estate Trends

August 29, 2006

As summer winds down, signs of the sluggish real estate market are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Even if you're not trying to sell right now, chances are you've been assigned to do a story about the real estate bubble. More

Under the Magnifying Glass: Security Costs Lie in the Proxy Statement

July 28, 2006

Just how safe is your favorite CEO? Very, judging by some of the disclosures in recent proxy statements. More

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