Phoenix traditional media Misses one of its largest business stories When Fender Musical Instruments Withdraws IPO

 

Twelve hours before Fender Musical Instruments was to become a publicly-traded company, it withdrew its IPO offering. At 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight and Mountain Standard time (Arizona time), Reuters ran with the story of the withdrawal.

By 7:30 p.m., not one media outlet in Phoenix, home town of Fender's corporate headquarters (Scottsdale), had the story. It was Reuters, headquartered half a world away in London, that filed this non-bylined report: "(Reuters) - Fender Musical Instruments Corp, whose guitars have been used by music legends including Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, said it withdrew its initial public offering, a day before the guitar-maker was expected to make its market debut."

 This further amplifies what a dismal journalism school Arizona State University's Cronkite is. Arizona media, dominated by Cronkite grads, is full of illiterate sentences, typos and inaccurate or unreported facts. Best example - no reporting on Fender IPO withdrawal.