Earnings Call Excerpt
Speakers
Edwin Finn, Editor and President, Barron's; Chairman and Editorial Director, SmartMoney
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
About the Speaker
Edwin Finn is the editor and president of Barron's, the Dow Jones business and financial weekly, and the chairman and editorial director of SmartMoney, The Wall Street Journal magazine of personal business which is co-owned by Dow Jones & Company and Hearst Communications, Inc. He also oversees SmartMoney.com and SmartMoney Custom Solutions, a custom publishing operation. Mr. Finn joined Dow Jones as a national copyreader for The Wall Street Journal in 1980, then moved to the foreign desk as editor, then to the Dallas bureau as a banking and finance reporter. He left to join Forbes as a senior editor, covering international business and finance, and later became an assistant managing editor. From 1990 to 1992, Mr. Finn was the editor of American Banker, a daily trade newspaper. He re-joined Dow Jones in 1993 as the managing editor of Barron's and was named editor of the magazine in 1995. Mr. Finn assumed additional responsibilities as the president of Barron's in 1998, and also served as the magazine's publisher for a year in 2000. He earned a Bachelor's degree in English and political science from Tufts University and a Master's degree in international banking and finance from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
Presentation
Edwin Finn, Editor and President, Barron's; Chairman and Editorial Director, SmartMoney
Thank you very much, Charles and it's a pleasure to be here with you and Kim and all the folks from the MoneyShow. I think we are, we have become family over the years from [Bob McTeer] down to my years coming here. I should also mention that Jason Zweig and Howard Golden all worked together at Forbes Magazine 20 years ago, so it's old home week around here, and it was great to hear their presentations.
All right Charles, that we've made some calls in Barron's. We've had a pretty good year this year. We called the bubble in oil at about $45 about last June. We said the dollar was going to strengthen last April and we're proud of that story.
The Maddoff story would have made us prouder if something happened about it. We certainly laid it in the SEC's laps, but the main reason I mention those stories is that we don't always get them right. We like GM at $17 so we're not infallible. But those of you know us, who read us, know that. But we try and we do actually, we do account for all the stories we write about, and we have a pretty good record of beating the market over the last five to six years.
But the important thing that people look for in us is a different viewpoint. I think the saying goes, "We're not always right but we're never unsure of ourselves."
What we try to do is make an intelligent argument that's not in the marketplace. We're trying to look for contrarian information, and today what I would share with you is some optimism, and there's not a lot of that around.
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