Poorly Written Shareholder Reports Reduces Value

A study found that poorly written shareholder reports cause stocks to trade at lower values. In an upcoming article in the Journal of Financial Economics, the authors describe their process for evaluating disclosure documents and the results:

Using a copy-editing software application that counts the pervasiveness of the most important ‘writing faults' that make a document harder to read, our analysis provides evidence that issuing financial disclosure documents with low readability causes firms to trade at significant discounts relative to the value of their fundamentals. Our estimates suggest that a one-standard-deviation decrease in readability decreases firm value by a full 2.5%. Our results are particularly strong in situations in which investors are more likely to rely on annual reports.

The study looked at closed-end funds, which have little public information and typically are owned by individual investors. So the authors mention the caveat, "We're actually not sure to what degree our findings extend to large, visible firms, such as Apple Inc."

Morningstar summarizes the significance:

Their data suggest that "higher readability generates more trust and higher perceived managerial skill," Messrs. Hwang and Kim say. They write, "When a firm's annual report becomes difficult to read, investors become suspicious, perceive the firm and its managers to be of lower quality or subconsciously develop negative sentiments."

"The results strongly suggest that investors value clear and concise communication," says Mr. Kim. "If annual reports or corporate disclosure documents are written in a complex way, investors will trade the firm at a discount."

The authors used the program StyleWriter, which I hope is better than Grammarly. I wrote an analysis of that software last year.

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Discussion:

• The Morningstar article suggests avoiding these "traps": legal words, hidden verbs, passive verbs, overwriting and wordy phrases. What other advice would you offer authors of disclosure statements?
• How do you think this study might translate to larger companies? What other factors are involved?

Choate Apologizes for Sexual Abuse

Choate

Private school Choate Rosemary Hall, in Wallingford, CT, has uncovered sexual abuse by 12 faculty members. According to a report commissioned by the board of trustees, abuse going back to the 1960s was mishandled:

"Sexual misconduct matters were handled internally and quietly. Even when a teacher was terminated or resigned in the middle of the school year because he or she had engaged in sexual misconduct with a student, the rest of the faculty was told little and sometimes nothing about the teacher's departure and, when told, was cautioned to say nothing about the situation if asked."

Some faculty were given recommendations to transfer to other schools.

In a "Message to the Choate Rosemary Hall Community," posted on the website, the board chair and headmaster review the facts, thank the victims for coming forward, apologize, and promise action. The school hired Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) to review its policies and make recommendations. One conclusion in the letter follows:

RAINN has noted the strength of Choate's current confidentiality, amnesty, retaliation, and mandatory reporting policies; progressive training and education for students; and faculty and staff who are caring, empathetic, and supportive while preventing and responding to sexual misconduct on campus. Their recommendations call for continued codification of policies and procedures for reporting and investigating incidents, further review and refinement of adjudication processes, and additional training for faculty and staff who respond to incidents of sexual misconduct. We believe a commitment to constantly improving standards will provide more understanding and protection for our students.

Discussion:

• I'm skeptical reading the excerpt above. So, your policies are great? You just need to follow them? And of course, you need to do training, which everyone seems to say in these situation. Read the entire letter and form your own opinion. Am I too harsh?
• Should Choate have this letter prominently on its website? I followed a link from The New York Times, but I don't see any reference to the statement. What are the arguments for and against posted something, say, on the home page?

Richard Branson's Letter About Virgin America

Richard Branson wrote an open letter lamenting the end of Virgin America. Alaska Air Group purchased the company in 2016 and, only three months later, decided to retire the brand. An Alaska Air official said, "We are going to be able to create a real, strong, integrated airline for travelers on the West Coast." Brandon says, "It has a very different business model and sadly, it could not find a way to maintain its own brand and that of Virgin America."

Branson uses emotional language to describe the decision and the demise of Virgin Records:

With a lot of things in life, there is a point where we have to let go and appreciate the fact that we had this ride at all. Many years ago, I shed tears over selling my beloved Virgin Records for $1 billion, which we needed to fight off British Airways' Dirty Tricks campaign to try to put Virgin Atlantic out of business. Many tears are shed today, this time over Alaska Airlines' decision to buy and now retire Virgin America.

Branson compliments the airline's employees and customers and includes memories:

Every market was hard-won. The launch parties, the networking, the productivity on flights, the live concerts at 35,000 feet, the marriage proposals, the first in-flight wedding, the Oprah Skype to the plane!

As you might expect from a big personality like Branson, he ends the letter on a dramatic note:

George Harrison once said, "All Things Must Pass." This was the ride and love of a lifetime. I feel very lucky to have been on it with all of you. I'm told some people at Virgin America are calling today "the day the music died." It is a sad (and some would say baffling) day. But I'd like to assure them that the music never dies.

Discussion:

• Analyze Branson's letter. Who are the primary and secondary audiences? What are the communication objectives? What is the organizational strategy?
• Given your analysis, how well does the letter meet its objectives?

Sideways, Google's New Dictionary

The Jigsaw incubator at Google Alphabet has created a dictionary to explain technical terms to the rest of us. Browser hijacking, cache, proxy, spoofing, tor-all are defined using simple analogies. Tor, for example, "Is like an onion. Tor stands for The Onion Router because it uses layer upon layer of protection to maximize anonymity. And trying to hack into it makes you cry."

The site's About page explains, "It's like a dictionary, but using analogies instead of definitions. Use it as a tool for finding and sharing helpful analogies to explain technology. Because if everyone understands technology better, we can make technology work better for everyone."

The head of marketing for Jigsaw, Alfred Malmro, had the idea for Sideways when he was trying to explain the new division of Google: "I started comparing things. 'This tool is like an armored vehicle,' or ‘this one is like a seatbelt.' And suddenly they understand, well, I want to use the seatbelt but I'm not sure that I need an armored vehicle. It really needed real world comparison." Malmro also says, "It's about communicating safety as simply as possible to people."

Users can submit analogies. Moderators cull those that aren't accurate, but ultimately, users decide which are most useful to understanding.

Discussion:

• Read a few of the definitions. How helpful do you find the analogies?
• What are the potential dangers of this approach? Overall, do you like the idea?

Another Million-Dollar Comma

Or, in this case, a $10 million comma. Yes, it's another legal battle where meaning is questioned because of a comma-more precisely, a missing Oxford comma. Business communication students know it well: that last comma in a series your instructor encourages you to insert for clarity, even though most major newspapers don't use it, and your middle school teacher didn't make such a fuss about it.

Truck drives for a dairy company, Maine-based Oakhurst Dairy, sued for $10 million in overtime pay because Maine's overtime statutes are unclear.

A Smithsonian news report summarizes the dispute related to F, "The canning, processing, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of":

The dairy argued that "packing for shipment" and "distribution" were two different jobs and that thus, overtime was inappropriate. But the drivers argued that "packing for shipment or distribution" is what was intended by the law-and that since they only deliver goods instead of packing them, they were owed money.

An appeals court ruled in favor of the drivers, even though Maine's own legal style guide suggests omitting the Oxford comma. But, the court argued that the comma should be used when clarity is needed, which of course, is the case here. A New Orleans columnist called it "the nerdiest dispute ever."

 

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Discussion Starters:

• Does this change your thinking about the Oxford comma, or do you still consider it a waste of time and space?
• What's your view of the court's ruling? Did the judge make the right decision? Why or why not?

Tillerson Had an Alias Email at Exxon

New Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had an alias email address when he was CEO of Exxon and used it to discuss climate change issues. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman discovered the account-and 34 others-while investigating Tillerson on potentially misleading statements about climate change.

Company spokesman Alan Jeffers says Tillerson did nothing wrong and set up the account because his primary email was overloaded:

"The email address, Wayne.Tracker@exxonmobil.com, is part of the company's email system and was put in place for secure and expedited communications between select senior company officials and the former chairman for a broad range of business-related topics."

"This was not an alias used to discuss only climate change. It was an account used for everyday business by senior executives who needed to reach."

Wayne is Tillerson's middle name, and Tracker may be relevant to his past involvement with the Boy Scouts of America.

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Discussion:

• Do you believe Exxon's argument that nothing is wrong here? Why or why not?
• Should Exxon have disclosed the account during the lawsuit? They did reveal the email address but didn't connect it to Tillerson.
• If the company did create the account, and Tillerson used it for "confidential" conversations, why do you think Tillerson and Exxon thought they could get away with this: arrogance, niavety, desperation, or something else?

Trump Team Typos

The Trump Administration faced criticism this week because of typographical and spelling errors. A Politico article sums up the trouble:

Whether it is a wrong name (for an acting deputy attorney general or the prime minister of the United Kingdom), or a failure to distinguish your principles from your principals, the Trump administration's struggles with proofreading are profuse. The Department of Education misspelled the name of the co-founder of the NAACP. Then it compounded the error by making another error in a follow-up tweet.

Perhaps the most visible-and most recent-has drawn attention to the others:

Politico reminds us of another misspelling on the president's first day in office. He didn't learn the session from a tweet in February 2016 with the same mistake.

Discussion:

• What's your view of these errors: not a big deal, a chance for the press to pile on Trump, sloppy, irresponsible, or something else?
• The president clearly values direct, immediate communication. Are typos just an inevitable, sufferable consequence?

Merriam-Webster Tweets

Business Insider has compiled a bunch of Merriam-Webster tweets about the Trump Administration and its use of language. The video, titled "Merriam-Webster can't stop trolling the Trump administration on Twitter," presents several examples: 

• Highlighted the word most often looked up in November: fascism
• Clarified the difference between "historic" and "historical," a word incorrectly used by Secretary of Education Betsy deVos
• Noted that the Holocaust refers "to the Nazis' mass murder of European Jews" after The White House neglected to mention Jews in the International Holocaust Rememberance Day statement 
• Defined "betrayal" after Sean Spicer said he wouldn't define the word during a press conference. 

And more. 

Discussion:

• What's implied in Business Insider's report? Is this a criticism? I'm not sure. 
• How helpful do you find Merriam-Webster's tweets? Some are clarifying and some are not.

Boeing Profits Up

After facing critical tweets from President Trump about its expensive military planes, Boeing reports quarterly profits better than expected. But the uptick is from commercial plans, a market Boeing is leading.

Boeing's fourth-quarter press release included a few cheery statements from Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg:

"With solid fourth quarter operating performance and a sharp strategic focus, we extended our aerospace market leadership in our centennial year and positioned Boeing for continued growth and success in our second century."

"We led the industry in commercial airplane deliveries for the fifth consecutive year, achieved healthy sales in our defense, space and services segments, and produced record operating cash flow, which fueled investment in innovation and our people and generated significant returns to shareholders."

"Looking forward, our team is intent on accelerating productivity and program execution to deliver increasing cash and profitability from our large and diverse order backlog of nearly $500 billion, standing up our new integrated services business, and capturing an even greater share of the the growing global aerospace market to deliver superior value to our customers, shareholders and employees."

Bloomberg reports Boeing shares at record high and that the "787 Dreamliner emerged from a decade of losses." The article quotes an analyst: "We think this release is pretty boring -- and boring is good."

But Fortune warns, "Its overall outlook for 2017, however, is not likely to inspire confidence. Boeing is calling for adjusted earnings between $9.10 and $9.30 this year, which is below the $9.31 that Wall Street analysts were projecting. The company expects revenue will fall to somewhere between $90.5 billion and $92.5 billion, compared to $94.6 billion in 2016."

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Discussion:

• We see a lot of jargon in the press release. Is it appropriate or off-putting?
• What does the analyst mean by the "release is pretty boring." Should it be more exciting? It is, after all, good news.
• What are the dangers of the Boeing CEO quotations being overly optimistic, as the Fortune article warns. What's the best approach here?

Analysis of Trump's Inauguration Speech

Both sides of the aisle seem to agree that President Trump's inaugural address was short and "militant," but analysts disagree on the effect.

NPR's analysts comment on the speech line by line, with some taking issue with his points; for example, he discusses inequities, yet, as one reporter explains, "It's worth noting that despite Trump's anti-establishment message and his frequent promises during the campaign to "drain the swamp," Trump's Cabinet picks so far have included several billionaires and Washington and Wall Street insiders, including billionaire Betsy DeVos, former Goldman Sachs executive Steve Mnuchin, former Exxon Mobil chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson, and countless current and former elected officials."

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly lauds the president's speech, particularly his jabs at the Obama Administration. He also notes that the president criticized President George W. Bush's Iraq and Afghan wars:

"George W. Bush was seated just a few feet away from President Trump. So it's clear that Donald Trump has no sensitivity to the politics of the past, no matter who was in office. His message was directed to his supporters, to the folks, who are fed up with a political process they believe is not helping them."

O'Reilly called it "more like a campaign speech than a presidential address."

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Discussion:

• What's your view of the speech? How do your political views influence your opinion?
• Analyze the language choices in Trump's speech. He uses several rhetorical devices.

Is Sears Doomed?

Yahoo Finance sees little hope for Sears. For years, the retailer has been closing stores and now it seems to be on its last leg. Declining sales caused the company to close 80 stores in July and another 64 through December.

CFO Jason Hollar remains optimistic:

We understand the concerns related to our operating performance. We have fallen short on our own timetable for achieving the profitability that we believe the company is capable of generating. With that said, the team remains fully committed to restoring profitability to our company and creating meaningful value.

This next sentence is a lesson in business jargon:

We believe that our liquidity needs will be satisfied through the foreseeable future using the levers available to us through our portfolio of assets.

In other words, they still have stuff to sell off (like brands) to keep the company afloat-perhaps not the best strategy. A failing company that sells its profitable bits is taking a big risk. The CEO of a retail consultancy doubts anything can save the business:

[T]he funds raised are not being used to develop of growth the firm - they are being used to prop up an ailing and failed business.

In our view, it is now too late to turn this around. It is just not financially feasible to reverse it.

How long can this drag on? BizCom in the News posts in 2011 and 2014 also focused on Sears store closings.

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Discussion Starters:

• What are the Sears' executives communication choices at this point? They can continue to prop up the brand image, or . . . what are some other options? Assess the potential consequences of each
• Am I too harsh about Hollar's comment? If you were advising him to use simple or "plain" language, what would you suggest he say instead? You might consider a little emotional appeal as well.
• Hollar mentioned Kenmore as a potential sales opportunity. What's Sears without Kenmore?

Some Carrier Jobs Will Be Saved

Some Carrier employees in Indiana will keep their jobs, while other positions, as planned, will move to Mexico.

President-elect Donald Trump has met with Carrier executives to keep the plant open for manufacturing gas furnaces. This is good news: more than 1,000 U.S. positions will be saved, but communication with employees has been lacking. Understandably, employees are skeptical about the decision and want more details. 

Here are a few quotes from those affected:

• "There's excitement with most people, but there's a lot of skepticism and worry because we don't know the details."
• "There's a few that are worried. And there's still a few that don't even believe this is real. They think it's a play, a set-up or a scam."
• "Who is going to be retained? What is the structure there will be for the retention? What is going to be put in place?" "Are these the same jobs at the same wage? I would sure like to know as soon as I can."
• "I'm optimistic, but I don't know what the situation is. I guess it's a good sign. ... You would think they would keep us in the loop. But we know nothing."

The last quotation is from the president of a local United Steelworkers union. The plant closure was announced in February and video recorded by an employee. During the meeting, the speaker said that they would involve union representatives, but they may be a missing link in this recent news.

Carrier released a statement about the decision, claiming, "The incentives offered by the state were an important consideration." Vice President-elect Mike Pence is currently the governor of Indiana.

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Discussion Starters:

• What advice would you give to Carrier executives about how the plan is communicated? Consider how the initial announcement took place as well.
• The company has a practical challenge: although they may have accepted incentives to keep the plant open, details about staffing have yet to be worked out. How can they communicate with employees in the meantime?

Grubhub CEO: Agree or Resign?

The CEO of Grubhub had a tough message for employees who disagree with his anti-Trump sentiment: "you have no place here." After the election, Matt Maloney wrote an email about tolerance and inclusion. He expressed his disappointment in Trump's election, particularly his "demeaning, insulting and ridiculing minorities, immigrants and the physically/mentally disabled" and his "nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful politics."

He went a step further at the end of the email:

"If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here. We do not tolerate hateful attitudes on our team. I want to repeat what Hillary said this morning, that the new administration deserves our open minds and a chance to lead, but never stop believing that the fight for what's right is worth it."

Media reports and social media responses interpreted Maloney's message as a threat: anyone who voted for Trump should resign.

Maloney has responded that his email was misinterpreted:

"I want to clarify that I did not ask for anyone to resign if they voted for Trump. I would never make such a demand. To the contrary, the message of the email is that we do not tolerate discriminatory activity or hateful commentary in the workplace, and that we will stand up for our employees."

This distinction is important; otherwise, the company may be discriminating against people based on political views.

Discussion Starters:

• Read Maloney's full message to employees and his statement. How do you interpret his original message and the explanation?
• Should Maloney have sent the email to employees? What are the benefits and risks to the company and to him personally?
• Could Maloney have revised the email to avoid the controversy? How so?

NY Times Promises Fair Coverage

The New York Times publisher and executive editor sent an unusual email to subscribers about election coverage. Poynter reports that this email and another to employees were in response to criticism of left-leaning coverage of the campaign.

The message is both reflective and forward-looking, questioning an unprecedented election and assuring readers fair coverage of President Trump in the future. The publisher and editor promise to stay true to the newspaper's core mission, and they thank loyal customers.  

Arthur Sulzberger is the newest member of the family to be named publisher of The Times. A fifth-generation publisher, Sulzberger is a descendant of  Adolph S. Ochs, who bought the paper in 1896.

The email comes after Sulzberger sent an internal memo to staff:

Dear Colleagues,

As we close one of the most momentous weeks in our nation's recent history, let's pause for a moment on those famous instructions that Adolph S. Ochs left for us: to cover the news without fear or favor.

As Donald Trump begins preparing for his new administration, those words have rarely felt more important.

The Times is certainly not afraid - our investigative report has demonstrated our courage many times over. That fearless, hard-fought journalism will always stand as the backbone of The Times, no matter the President.

But we also approach the incoming Trump administration without bias. We will cover his policies and his agenda fairly. We will bring expert analysis and thoughtful commentary to the changes we see in government, and to their ramifications on the ground.

We will look within and beyond Washington to explore the roots of the anger that has roiled red and blue America. If many Americans no longer seem to understand each other, let's make it our job to interpret and explain.

Our predecessors founded our singular newspaper for just this moment - to serve as a watchdog to the powerful; and to hold mighty institutions accountable, without fear or favor. We are more than ready to fulfill that promise.

Together, we have built the world's best digital newsroom and it, too, was made for just this moment. We will chronicle the new administration with a lightning-fast report that features stories told in every medium and on every platform.

Here is what we have all dedicated our careers to: Going after the biggest stories in the world, and telling them as ambitiously as possible.

Get some rest this weekend. We have lots to do.

Arthur

Discussion Starters:

• You might read this as either an admission or a defense. What's your view? 
• What are the communication objectives of both emails? You might consider the newspaper business today. To what extent do you think they meet those objectives? Overall, are the messages effective?
• Assess the writing style against principles in Chapter 5. Pay particular attention to word choice and sentence structure.

Wells Fargo's New Commercial

Wells Fargo is trying to rebuild its image after facing the scandal that it opened accounts for people who didn't request them and weren't aware they had them. Until now, we heard little from the company, except an email to some customers and a full-page ad with plans that seemed quite basic.

A new, short commercial focuses on three points: fully refunding those impacted, proactively sending new account confirmations, and eliminating product sales goals. 

These actions are a bit more specific than what has been communicated in the past. However, a skeptic like me might say these steps are still the bare minimum that the company can do for customers. Also eliminating product sales goals, which arguably caused the trouble because they were overly aggressive, should have been done years ago, particularly now that we know employees had reported issues but were ignored or retaliated against.

Discussion Starters:

• Assess this commercial. Who are the primary and secondary audiences? What are the communication objectives? How well does the company achieve them?
• Consider the language choices. The three actions aren't quite parallel. What other changes could be made?
• What else should Wells Fargo do at this point to rebuild its image?

Layoffs at Twitter

Twitter is laying off about 9% of employees and closing Vine, the short video app it purchased in October 2012 before it launched. When Instagram offered video options, Vine immediately lost much of its user base. About 350 employees are affected.

Layoffs are awkward for Twitter, a site sometimes used for "live tweeting" bad news. In this case, a former employee created a Twitter Moment, "Last Day at Twitter." Exiting employees also used the hashtag #TwitterLayoffs. This could be risky for a company, but the posts are positive. It could be that employees enjoyed their time at Twitter and understand the rationale for layoffs. It could also be that employees are in high demand from other companies, so they won't be out of work too long.

Discussion Starters:

• Why do you think employees tweeted nice messages on their last day? I offered two theories. Any other ideas?
• Should the company have created its own hashtag for the event to pre-empt something worse? Why or why not?

Communications About the Outage

The latest cyberattack left Netflix, Spotify, Amazon, Etsy, and other sites spinning and apparently deciding how much and what to communicate to users. Issues at Dyn, a host company, affected the others, and Dyn was communicating regularly during the outage.

Amazon, for example, seemed to communicate nothing at all in its press releases, on its blog or on its Twitter feed: all highlight company activities and products for Halloween.

Discussion Starters:

• Why would Amazon not communicate about the outage? Do you think this was a good decision? Consider the technology impact and responsibilities.
• Assess Dyn's communication. This isn't the traditional apology. How well does it work? Consider the audience and communication objectives in your response.

Wal-Mart CEO Is Front and Center

Two articles this week highlight strides Wal-Mart is making in increasing wages and improving store service. A Wall Street Journal article was titled, "CEO Doug McMillon's Ad Was Designed to Burnish Retailer's Image: The retailer put its leader at the center of a push to shed perceptions that it offers little more than low prices and low-paying jobs," and a New York Times article was titled, "How Did Walmart Get Cleaner Stores and Higher Sales? It Paid Its People More." Both articles focus on the retail giant's efforts to improve its image.

The WSJ article describes McMillon's appearance in a commercial as an "unusual move," and the NYT article references a video he produced in 2015 promising to increase employee wages and training, below. McMillon also appears in a YouTube video, "Riding in Cars with Executives" with a Wal-Mart associate. Although having an executive so tightly connected to a brand can be risky, McMillon is younger than the average Fortune 500 CEO and is likable. In the car video, he talks about popular culture and seems, well, just like the rest of us.

Discussion Starters:

• I say that having a CEO tightly associated with a brand is risky. Why do you think that is? What examples of other companies have presented a CEO similarly and probably regretted it?
• Assess McMillon's video, above. Who are his primary and secondary audiences? What are his communication objectives? How convincing are the messages? How effective is his delivery style?

Legal Briefs Get (a Little) Shorter

Legal writing isn't business writing. Judges have argued for briefer briefs, but not everyone agrees. Currently, these documents, which detail arguments in a legal case, max out at 14,000 words or about 57 pages of double-spaced text. Lawyers contend that they need more space but have agreed to reduce the number of words by 1,000, which is 1,500 fewer words than the original proposal.

Before lawyers had a word limit for briefs, they had a page limit. But the 50-page limit frustrated judges because lawyers would simply reduce the font size and page margins, making reading difficult.

According to a Wall Street Journal report last year, judges (no surprise) prefer reading shorter briefs: 

"It's hard to persuade lawyers on this point, says Bryan Garner, editor of Black's Law Dictionary. "They don't like to own up to their own diffuseness and verbosity," he said. "The way judges rebel at aimless verbose writing is they simply stop reading. The scarcest resource in any judge chamber is a judge's attention." 

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas confirmed the sentiment: "When you see one that's 50, and you see this guy has crammed every square centimeter or millimeter he could find on the page, that's when you say, my goodness!"

Image source.

Discussion Starters:

• What are the value and downsides of having word limits for legal briefs?
• Do you buy lawyers' arguments that they need more words to present their case? Why or why not?
• What types of business documents (other than writing for classes) have page or word limits?

Amazon Cancels Incentivized Reviews

In a blog post, Amazon announced the end of incentivized reviews.

Although the incentives were limited to customers who disclosed that they received a free or discounted product, the reviews were sponsored by companies, and Amazon will change that. Putting the reviews in perspective, Amazon wrote, "These so-called ‘incentivized reviews' make up only a tiny fraction of the tens of millions of reviews on Amazon, and when done carefully, they can be helpful to customers by providing a foundation of reviews for new or less well-known products."

The move is part of Amazon's goal of increasing trust in reviews. In the past, incentivized reviews meant better reviews: 4.74 stars out of 5 compared to 4.36.

Amazon will continue its Vine program, which encourages reviews but doesn't have the same reward system:

"Amazon – not the vendor or seller – identifies and invites trusted and helpful reviewers on Amazon to post opinions about new and pre-release products; we do not incentivise positive star ratings, attempt to influence the content of reviews, or even require a review to be written; and we limit the total number of Vine reviews that we display for each product."

Discussion Starters:

• Analyze Chee Chew's blog post. Who are the primary and secondary audiences? What are the communications objectives, and how well does Chew achieve them? 
• How would you describe the distinctions between the incentivized reviews and the Vine program? Are you convinced that Vine reviews will be objective?