OLD Media Moves

Ask Talking Biz News…about public company lists

October 11, 2010

Here is the third installment of a new weekly feature from Talking Biz News, where a business reporter or editor asks a question related to reporting or writing about a business news topic.

Here is this week’s question:

Where can you go to find a listing of all public companies within a certain coverage area, especially when it’s a smaller community where, for example, the local Chamber of Commerce has no online presence?

Talking Biz News responded:

I haven’t found anything complete. A good source is to call a local stockbroker. He or she has probably dealt with all of the local stocks in your area.

My best suggestions are as follows:

1. See if a larger newspaper in the region has done a list of the top 100 publicly traded companies. These are typically kept on their Web site for the entire year. For example, here’s one from the Washington Post that breaks down the public companies in the DC area by which county they’re based: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/post200/bfcnty.htm

Seattle Times has a list that includes Washington, Idaho and Oregon: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/business/nw100/list/

2. Find a Bloomberg terminal in your area. Money managers or small hedge funds or stockbrokers typically have these in their offices. You can do a search for all news on companies by state by typing in “NI” and then the state code and then the green GO button. The state codes for a Bloomberg are the same as its ZIP code.

3. This listing is also a good start. It breaks down public companies by state: http://www.crmz.com/Directory/CountryUS.htm

Hope this helps. Not sure if I’m answering the question, but I don’t know if there’s a perfect answer.

If you’ve got a business reporting question you’d like to pose to Talking Biz News, send an e-mail to croush@email.unc.edu.

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