Categories: OLD Media Moves

Hedge fund trade group bans journalists from covering conference

The hedge fund industry’s premiere trade group, the Managed Funds Association, has decided to ban the media from its upcoming annual conference in Key Biscayne, Fla., writes Jeff Benjamin from Investment News.

Benjamin writes, “The ban, which reverses a policy that has been in place for the entire 15-year history of the networking conference, was introduced not by the MFA’s board but by the staff, according to D. Brooke Harlow, executive vice president and managing director.

“Ms. Harlow, who was hired in April to oversee the association’s marketing and communications, refused to elaborate on the decision beyond saying: ‘There had been a couple of issues [related to media coverage at the event] over the last two years.’

“The MFA has 2,400 members and represents ‘the vast majority of the largest hedge fund groups in the world who manage a substantial portion of the approximately $1.5 trillion invested in absolute-return strategies,’ according to the association.

“Ms. Harlow declined to comment on the message it might send that such a significant industry association has decided that the media is no longer allowed at its largest annual industry gathering.”

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Dave says:
December 22, 2009 at 11:57 am
Clearly the Hedge Fund Industry wants to limit their communications with the media to those times when they are looking to source a story for personal gain or, do as Steve Cohen did recently by killing a soon to be published negative story about him. The hedge Funds want to control as much of the market as they can and by this action, they want to limit media coverage of their industry to that which they can control.
The fact that the MFA took such action should be yet another red flag to the business media that something is remiss in this relationship between fund and media.