Bingo! You just knew it couldn't have been the faulty business plans, the extravagant burn rates, the manic hyperbole, the 25-year-old CEOs, or free shipping for 50-pound bags of dog food that killed the New Economy.

No, it was public relations. According to Unger, communicating directly with shareholders is a bad thing. Companies must keep the huddled masses in the dark and leave the stock market to the "professionals" like Merrill-Lynch's Henry Blodgett and Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker, who pumped up stocks like Amazon and Yahoo! to absurd levels, duping their lemmings-like followers while their firms collected fat banking fees from these clients.

Remember, this is the (acting) chairman of the SEC saying these things.

Speaking of vested interests, according to a survey conducted of 577 companies earlier this year by NIRI, a trade group for investment relations professionals, 24 percent of companies are actually providing less information following the enactment of Reg FD. The survey did show, though, that 28% of companies are now providing more earnings information to investors, while 48% are providing the same amount. Public access to earnings conference calls has also risen to 89% of companies surveyed, from 60% before Reg FD's enactment (mostly through the Internet, the gearheads note).

"Earnings guidance has become a risky area, making some companies reluctant to share much information," says NIRI president and CEO Louis Thompson. Well, duh. And now that it's not happening in clandestine meetings between CFOs and their bankers, er, investment advisers, it's a lot trickier to massage a stock price prior to the announcement of bad tidings.

Just ask Raytheon, a defense contractor accused by the SEC of holding private analyst meetings last month about its first-quarter outlook. Or technology powerhouse Motorola, which is accused of providing earnings guidance (this week's euphemism for "spin") to certain analysts. Four other companies are also under investigation for Reg FD violations, which could result in anything from a cease-and-desist order to a federal injunction and financial penalties.

For anyone who ever doubted the impact of public relations, Reg FD proves that there is no more important form of corporate communications these days. Advertising is nice (if a company can even afford it anymore), but it's PR that moves the needle on Wall Street. This makes it mission-critical for you to stay on top of Reg FD and ensure that you are providing your clients with the kind of guidance and information-disclosure tactics that keep them out of trouble with the feds.

Despite protests to the contrary, Reg FD isn't going away anytime soon (just like the Rolling Stones). So it's up to you to make it work for your clients. And that means maximizing the Internet as a communications vehicle. While posting news releases on PRNewswire often gets the job done, Mainsail can recommend and implement a variety of more effective interactive options that puts the news directly into the hands of all investors simultaneously rather than sequentially.

Which would you rather be singing, "Happy" or "Before They Make Me Run"?

Based in Brussels, Chris Clark is senior vice president of strategic services for Mainsail. He is also the author of "Byte Back," a monthly humor column for Adweek Magazines' Technology Marketing.

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