St. Pete Times biz reporter denied access to annual meeting

St. Petersburg Times business columnist Robert Trigaux writes Tuesday about how the paper’s retail reporter, Mark Albright, was denied access to the Home Shopping Network’s annual meeting.

Trigaux writes, “HSN chief Mindy Grossman did telephone reporter Albright later Tuesday to try and explain the closed door policy. She said there’s no requirement to allow the media. She called it pretty standard not to allow press, which is an interesting remark since I’ve covered annual shareholder meetings for 30 years and rarely encountered closed doors except from companies that are facing public heat. Grossman told Albright she will think about opening it up next year but, as she said, she’s got a year to consider the idea.

“Well, there’s no requirement that this newspaper pay attention to HSN’s performance or innovations or its many press releases hyping celebrity sales pitches on HSN by the likes of Paula Abdul or Serena Williams. But we do because we think it’s important to report on a large public company — especially one that’s once again based here on its own and presumably wants to be more of a regional player – that also employs lots of people in the Tampa Bay community.

“It’s not just about HSN. It’s about Tampa Bay getting reacquainted with a reorganized company right here.”

Read more here.