No aspect of public company life has evolved more rapidly over the past decade than communications. Before the 2000 adoption of Regulation FD, public communications were quaintly simplistic. Companies dutifully filed their periodic reports, which included a significantly streamlined (by today’s standards) proxy statement and relatively infrequent Form 8-Ks. Heads of investor relations, who often were also the CFO or General Counsel, stayed in regular telephone contact with market analysts and principal stockholders, answering their questions and providing color with only a modest nod toward concerns like selective disclosure and tipping. Regulation FD, of course, changed all of that. What no one knew at the time was that it would be the first drop in what would become a deluge of communication requirements and alternatives.

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