The new ASX website launched on 12 October presents issues for many companies who use it to show announcements from their own websites or publish links in their emails.
These companies need to fix potentially hundreds of incorrect links, and possibly get permission from ASX.
These issues apply to you if...
1. Your corporate website contains links to the ASX website for your ASX Announcements,
2. Your email alerts about your announcements contain links to the ASX website for the announcement, or
3. You are an IR consultant who sends emails on behalf of your clients including links to the ASX website.
Fortunately, if you're an IRM customer, none of these issues applies to you.
Issue #1 - Incorrect Links
On the old ASX website, you were able to provide a link directly to a particular announcement on their site. Many companies' sites have hundred of links directly to announcements using those old links. Likewise, many emails they have sent in the past contain the same links.
On the new ASX website, the links to the announcements have a different format.
The old links no longer go to the announcement PDF, instead they direct this traffic to the general market announcements page.
So if the ASX Announcements page on your website has, say, 50 links to your latest 50 ASX Announcements, then all 50 links go to the same place, which is the ASX landing page of all market announcements for a specific day.
To find the one which the investor thought they had clicked on, they would then need to do a search of some kind to find it, remembering the announcement name or date or something.
Too hard. It won't work. They will not find your announcements.
Their next click will probably be on some other company announcement that caught their eye and you have lost their visit. Worse, you will look very much like you just don't care about your website visitors and your investors.
Effectively, the ASX has made your links incorrect and made you look very lazy in your attitude to investors.
The new ASX website has taken down your whole ASX Announcement publication strategy.
Issue #2 - Permission
The terms and conditions of the ASX website include these words:
Market Announcements
Market Announcements are freely available for investors’ private and personal use only, and cannot be used for any commercial purpose without the express written authority of ASX. A commercial purpose is any use other than accessing and using the content for your own personal and private decision making.
Linking to the Site
You may not link any third party website to any pages of the Site unless we agree in writing.
Clearly, if any company's corporate website has a commercial purpose and links to the ASX website for any reason, you need ASX permission to do so.
The terms and conditions are silent on the subject of including such links in emails, but we would not like to have to run the defence...
If you are an ASX listed company with links to the ASX website on your website, and if you have the permission, we suggest that you mention it on the web page so investors will not doubt your compliance. If no permission, we suggest you request it, and for safety, while you wait for it, you should cease.
If you are an IR consultant in the habit of sending emails with links to the ASX website, we suggest you take action. Perhaps ask each of your clients about permission, and in the meantime, it might be a good idea to find another practice.
If you are a listed company employing an IR consultant who sends links to the ASX website you might think about your position.
Consider the IRM Newsroom as an alternative for sending your ASX Announcements.
Action Needed
If you are publishing links to an ASX Announcement on the ASX Website, the document will have the watermark "For Personal Use Only". What impression does this create with your website visitors - do they understand, or just get confused? Most companies do not do this, you are probably raising an unnecessary doubt.
IRM Newsroom offers fast and easy alternative solutions for these situations without links to the ASX website or use of the market announcements on the ASX website.
Our multi-ticker version of IRM Newsroom is ideal for IR consultants.
Just before you go off seeking permission, and set about recalibrating a few hundred links, why not call IRM on +61 2 8705 5444 for a better solution? Or jump straight on and organise a FREE TRIAL of IRM Newsroom.
You can also email us at clientrelations@irmau.com for more information.
Online Investor Engagement Specialists
