Chris Roush, professor at the University of North Carolina, presents “Uncovering Public Information on Private Companies” during the free Reynolds Center workshop, “Uncovering the Best Local Business Stories,” in Fort Worth. (PLEASE NOTE: This presentation has been modified from the version that was presented in Kentucky.) The daylong workshop covered tips on how to find good stories in the business of government, how to cover economic-development agencies at the state and local levels, and how to find public information on private companies. Presenters also discussed how to find stories in small business and publicly available databases, and how to localize national and international stories for your audience. This free training was specifically geared toward community journalists and generalists on tight budgets and small staffs. A previous workshop by the same name was held in Lexington, Ky. For more information about free training for business journalists, please visit businessjournalism.org.

1. Uncovering public information on
private companies
April 26, 2012
Chris Roush
croush@email.unc.edu

2. Public vs. Private
• Business reporters spend a lot of time writing
stories about publicly traded companies who
file documents with the SEC
• Makes it easier to cover business, because
lots of information is disclosed.
• Does it make reporters lazy? In some cases,
I would argue yes.

3. Private companies
• Small companies are the backbone of local
economies.
• 22.9 million, according to the U.S. Small Business
Administration.
• Small businesses provide 75 percent of the net
new jobs added to the economy, and represent
99.7 percent of all employers.
• More than half of the private work force is
employed by a small business, which accounted
for 52 percent of the private sector output.

4. Private companies
• Can sometimes be harder to find
information about private companies.
• If you look hard enough though, you’ll
find what you’re looking for.
• Many private companies will disclose the
information somewhere, to someone.

5. Private companies
• Don’t be afraid to ask.
• When someone tells you
no, keep digging.

6. Basic places to look

7. The beauty of checking up
• A developer came to Nashville and proposed building
an amusement park.
• Annie Johnson of the Nashville Business Journal looked
into his background.
• She found a trail of unpaid bills, bounced checks,
evictions, troubled business associates and unfulfilled
plans.
• She got to write sentences like this: “In a 2006 letter
related to the purchase of the San Diego property,
Peterson said he received a master’s degree in
business administration from Harvard University.
(Harvard’s MBA Registrar has no record that Peterson
attended the school.)”

8. Where to begin: State records
• The Secretary of State’s office has
records on every business incorporated
in Texas.
• http://www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/sosda/
index.shtml
• Here you can search by company name,
current officer or by registered agent.
• Texas charges $1 per search.

9. What this will show you
• Incorporation records give you a listing of
a business’ officers, or executives.
• It will also give you a mailing address and
a phone number.
• Has its license expired? If it has, that
could be a sign of financial trouble.

10. Secretary of State records
• You can also search Department of
Secretary of State records to get similar
information for other operations.
• These include nonprofit entities, limited
liability corporations such as law firms and
limited partnerships.

11. Occupational Licensing Boards
• There are regulatory
boards that govern dozens
of industries in Texas.
• They range from athletic
trainers to teachers.
• These boards have
websites where you can
also find information about
businesses in these
industries.
• http://
www.license.state.tx.us/
LicenseSearch/

12. Licensing board examples
• In April, the Monterey County Weekly
paper in California wrote about how the
state Contractors State License Board was
finding and fining unlicensed contractors
in the county.
• On the same day, across the country in
Massachusetts, the Falls River Herald
wrote about the local liquor licensing
board approving two new restaurants.

13. Trade Associations
• Most private and small companies also belong to trade
associations. Could be National Federation of
Independent Business.
• These associations may be able to tell you industry-
wide figures for the state that put the industry in
context.
• They are also valuable to relay legislative issues
concerning these companies.
• http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/U_S__States/Texas/
Business_and_Economy/ includes Texas Beef Council,
Texas Farm Bureau and Texas Trial Lawyers
Association.

14. The WARN Act
• Employers who are laying off or firing workers
are required to disclose such moves 60 days
before they do it.
• This is a document filed with the Texas Workforce
Commission.
• http://www.twc.state.tx.us/svcs/jtpa/warn.html
• UPS notified on Jan. 17 that it would lay off 135
in Carrollton, Texas on April 6.

15. The WARN Act
• An employer must give notice if a plant will be shut
down, and the shutdown will result in an
employment loss for 50 or more employees during
any 30-day period.
• An employer must give notice if there is to be a
mass layoff which does not result from a plant
closing, but which will result in an employment loss
at the site during any 30-day period for 500 or
more employees, or for 50-499 employees if they
make up at least 33 percent of the employer's
active workforce.

16. Safety and Health
• Worker complaints about unsafe or
unhealthy working conditions are
made in writing to the Occupational
Safety and Health Division.
• The division conducts investigations
of complaints made by workers,
investigations of work-related
accidents and deaths, inspections of
randomly picked firms, and follow-
up inspections of firms previously
cited for OSHA violations.

17. Workplace injuries
• The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration inspects workplace deaths and
injuries:
http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/
establishment.html
• This site allows you to look at accident
investigation reports and inspection reports for
companies by industry.
• Found 8 open cases for American Airlines. The
last one was opened on June 30 and included
$29,000 in fines at San Antonio location.

18. Workplace injuries
• The Fort Myers News-Press reported in
April about an OSHA investigation into the
drowning of a worker at a country club.
• The Toledo Blade reported in April that a
construction company in Ohio was fined
$26,100 for failing to prevent worker
safety hazards.

19. Bankruptcy court
• Northern District of Texas:
http://www.txnb.uscourts.gov/
• Chapter 11 filings and court dockets online.
• Companies file for bankruptcy court protection
when they can no longer pay their bills.
• Chapter 11 filing will reorganize debt; Chapter
7 is liquidation.

20. My favorites

21. UCC Records
• Who owes money to whom, and how much?
• These documents are available through the
Secretary of State’s office in Texas.
• http://www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/sosda/
index.shtml
• $5 fee for UCC downloads.

22. UCC Records
• A UCC filing occurs when one business sells
something to another business on credit. The
business that sold the tractor to the farmer, for
example, filed a UCC form showing that the
tractor is collateral for the loan.
• If the business that purchased the tractor fails to
pay the loan, the other business can repossess the
tractor. UCC forms can show whether a business is
borrowing a lot of money to make purchases.
• This could be a sign that the company plans to
expand its operations.

23. UCC Records
• When the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette investigated a
church that wanted to redevelop a shopping
center, it looked at its UCC filings and discovered
that banks and other lenders had given it seven
loans despite the fact that it had fallen behind in
paying its taxes and other debts.
• When USA Today researched former WorldCom
leader Bernie Ebbers, it pored through UCC filings
around the country to get a detailed list of
everything he’d invested in or purchased in the
past decade. That helped show the reader where
the money he’d made from WorldCom had gone.

24. Nonprofit organizations
• Even though they’re not in operation to
make money, you can still find out
financial information.
• www.guidestar.org is a website with
information about nonprofit organizations
across the country.
• Found the financial information for 62
nonprofits in Fort Worth on this site.
Some of them look like businesses to
me.

25. Texas nonprofits
• Fort Worth Zoological Association had
$19.9 million in revenue and $15.6
million in expenses.
• In comparison, Fort Worth Botanical
Society had $796,000 in revenue and
$872,000 in expenses.
• Fort Worth Art Association had $8.3
million in revenue and $8.1 million in
expenses.

26. Nonprofit organizations
• Form 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
• Form 990 is required to be filed by tax-exempt
organizations with more than $100,000 in annual receipts
or total assets of at least $250,000. Form 990-EZ must be
filed by smaller organizations, with at least $25,000 in
annual receipts and total assets of less than $250,000.
• The forms are public documents that reveal income,
expenses, assets and liabilities; expenditures by program
category; program accomplishments; names of officers,
directors and key employees; compensation paid to
officers, directors and key employees.
• Most religious organizations are not required to file Form
990.

27. Small Business Administration
• Federal agency created to help small
business owners.
• Virtually every small business is private.
• Millions of companies registered with SBA
to receive benefits or to qualify for
contracts and business.

28. Small Business Administration
• http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/
dsp_dsbs.cfm
• I searched for disadvantaged business
enterprises in the 817 area code and found
1,637. (Can do a lot of other searches
here.)
• U.S. Ply Inc. founded in Fort Worth in 2004
and owned by Mark Egan. Makes roofing
materials.

29. Small Business Administration
• U.S. Robotech Inc. founded in 1987 in
Arlington, Texas.
• Company does IT integration.
• Has $6 million contract right now with
the FAA. Contact for FAA is listed with
phone number.
• Had $4 million contract with Nuclear
Regulatory Commission before that.

30. Credit unions
• Many cities have dozens of credit unions.
Yet many newspapers don’t write stories
about them.
• Credit union financial information is
available online from the National Credit
Union Administration.
• http://www.ncua.gov/ Click on “Credit
Union Data” on the left-hand menu to find
specific information about any credit
union.

31. Credit unions
• Alcon Employees Credit Union in Fort
Worth has $34 million in assets.
• Had net income of $187,614in the fourth
quarter, up 14 percent from the
$169,623 it made in the fourth quarter
of 2010.
• Interest income from loans rose
dramatically, but its income from
investments fell.

32. Banks
• Regulated by state and federal agencies.
• Data on bank branches -- including private banks -- such
as market share is available online.
• http://www.fdic.gov. Go here and click on “Bank Data” to
get market share info.
• http://www3.fdic.gov/idasp//. Find any bank holding
company or location insured by the FDIC. Search results
will tell you the bank’s total deposits and assets, as well
as financial performance.

33. Banks
• Woodhaven National Bank has two
branches in Fort Worth.
• Had net income of $5.6 million in the
fourth quarter of 2011, up from $5.1
million in fourth quarter of 2010.
• Loan losses decreased to $658,000 from
$872,000 in the year.
• 37 percent of its investment portfolio is
in Treasury bills.

34. Random websites

35. Political campaign contributions
• How much did Tony Romo give to certain
local political campaigns?
http://www.followthemoney.org/
• What about federal campaigns?
http://www.tray.com/pml/home.do
• The last database goes back to 1980. Can
search company names as well.

36. Lobbying
• Does the company have lobbyists, and how much
is it paying them?
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/index.asp
• Texas Border Coalition spent $120,000 in
lobbying last year, double from 2010.
• Texas Instruments spent $1.8 million in
lobbying last year. Annually spends more than
$1.5 million.
• University of Texas spent $802,090 last year,
down from the $1.15 million it spent in 2008.

37. Hospital financial information
• http://www.ahd.com/freesearch.php3
• Here’s the list of Fort Worth hospitals
that it has financial information for:
Baylor All Saints, Cook’s Children, John
Peter Smith, Plaza Medical Center, Texas
Health Harris, Kindred
• This is a subscriber site,
but also offers free data.

38. Patents and Trademarks
• http://patents.uspto.gov/
• Type in a company’s name and see what it’s getting
patents for.
• Texas Instruments has had 17,203 patents
assigned to it.
• Latest was filed Jan. 24 and was for “This invention
time-shares one sounding source across plural user
equipment for different sub-frames. This invention
uses different sounding periods which are periodic
and either non-changing in time or changing in
time.”

39. The EPA
• http://www.epa.gov -- Click on the docket
to the left on the home page to see Federal
Register notices, support documents and
public comments for regulations the agency
publishes and various non-regulatory
activities.
• Also a nice search engine of environmental
information available by ZIP Code, which
lists EPA-regulated businesses.

40. Toxic Waste
• http://www.epa.gov/tri/ -- The Toxic Release
Inventory is a database of information about
releases and transfers of toxic chemicals
from manufacturing plants.
• Facilities must report their releases of a toxic
chemical if they fulfill four criteria. This can
be searched by geographic regions as well as
by facility, parent company and industry.

41. Activists
• http://activistcash.com/ -- Profiles anti-
consumer activist groups, along with
information about the sources of their
exorbitant funding.
• Breaks them up among activist groups,
foundations, celebrities and major
individual players in the activist
community.

42. Amusement parks
• http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/
amuse.pdf -- This file lists who regulates
amusement park rides on a state-by-state
basis.

43. EEOC
• http://www.eeoc.gov -- The Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission
investigates charges against businesses for
unfair employment practices or
discrimination.
• “Litigation” section on the left side of the
page has a link to a monthly report on all of
the actions taken by the agency.

44. Consumer advocates
• http://www.nasuca.org -- National
Association of State Utility Consumer
Advocates, which represents the interest
of consumers before state and federal
agencies in 40 states and the District of
Columbia.
• Nice list of its testimony and filings.

45. Consumer products
• http://www.planetfeedback.com/ --
Search for complaints of compliments
about any product and any company at
this site.
• If you’re writing about consumer products
companies, the postings here might
provide some story ideas.

46. One last thought
• Good business writers are hard to find.
• Make a name for yourself writing business
stories, and your career will take off.
• A knowledge of how to write business
stories about private companies can be
applied to any beat at a newspaper or any
publication.