For my seventh wedding anniversary, I gave Mr. Footnoted a giant tube of Cortisone cream, the type that you can only buy at a Costco or BJs. It was a joke based on the so-called “Seven Year Itch” that causes some marriages to go stale. I mention this because today happens to be the seventh anniversary of footnoted.
When I started this site in 2003 — here’s the very first post — I had no idea that I’d still be at it seven years later. Launched as a way to spur the conversation (and sales) after the publication of my book, it didn’t take long for footnoted to take on a life of its own, thanks to an incredibly loyal readership. For much of its existence, the site has been the hard work of me and the brain, my dog (and loyal assistant) Kumara, who’s sitting snoring next to me as I type this. But, earlier this year, as a result of Morningstar’s (MORN) acquisition of the site, we’ve added several staffers on both the front and back ends to make the site even better and push it into the next phase of its life.
And though in true blog fashion, we tend to be a bit snarky, the reality is that we’re covering some very serious subjects here, like tax gross ups and unusual option grants, just to name a few. While we’re slowly putting more of that content behind a wall — we’re currently beta testing Footnoted’s Red Flag Alerts, which are quick summaries of the significant disclosures we uncover as we’re going through the filings that don’t make it on to the free site — the goal remains the same in 2010 as it did in 2003: to make investors more aware about the stuff that companies try to bury in their routine SEC filings.
On this anniversary of itchiness, I’d like to thank each and every one of you for supporting the site over the years. Whether you’re new to the site or an old fan, we hope that you continue to find it useful going forward. If I could, I’d buy each and every one of you your own giant tube of Cortisone cream!
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