NEW YORK, Dec. 14, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Dow Jones Newswires, the leading provider of real-time news and information solutions for financial professionals, will adopt the Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB) as its classification standard for identifying industry groups in its news content starting on February 18, 2006. Every company has a place in the ICB, which is a four-tier, hierarchical industry classification structure centered on a rules-based methodology for placing entities within sectors. ICB was launched in January 2005 by Dow Jones Indexes and FTSE Group.
Through ICB, Dow Jones Newswires' clients and users will have the opportunity to access the market's most innovative and flexible industry classification structure. ICB, a standard used by stock exchanges, index providers, and publishing and media organizations world-wide, will complement and upgrade the range of search codes available in Dow Jones Newswires' currently used classification system, which also includes codes for news topics, regions and other categories.
Since its launch, ICB quickly is establishing itself as the market's preferred classification system. It is designed to offer the financial industry a unified and comprehensive means of classifying 40,000 companies and 45,000 securities around the world. It allows users to monitor broad trends, focus on small market niches, and also perform qualitative and quantitative analysis.
"We have chosen to align our classification to the ICB standard as it represents a truly efficient modernization of the search tools we give our clients for finding the articles that matter to them about industries and the companies in them," said Robert Prinsky, senior editor and executive director at Dow Jones Newswires.
"ICB offers comprehensive global coverage and an innovative classification structure that appeals to clients across the investment community," said James Cemprola, managing director of ICB. "ICB serves as a versatile tool and will bring a tremendous amount of expertise and value to Dow Jones Newswires and its users."
More information about the Industry Classification Benchmark is available at www.icbenchmark.com.
Journalists wishing for more information should contact:
Dow Jones Newswires Robert H. Christie Director, Corporate Communications Dow Jones & Company (212) 416-2636 robert.christie@dowjones.com Dow Jones Indexes New York: +1-212-597-5720 Frankfurt: +49-69-971428915 E-mail: pr-indexes@dowjones.com FTSE Group New York Lynne Sims, FTSE Americas Tel: +1 212 641 6168 E-mail : lynne.sims@ftse.com London Sandra Steel, FTSE Group Tel +44 207 448 1821 E-mail media@ftse.com
Note to Editors:
About Dow Jones Newswires
Dow Jones Newswires (djnewswires.com) offers real-time news and information solutions for financial professionals providing investment, advice and institutional services. The division also offers news for financial firms' Web sites and Dow Jones Financial Information Services' database, newsletter and event businesses. In addition to Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ; www.dowjones.com) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron's and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Indexes, MarketWatch, and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva, with Hearst of SmartMoney and with NBC Universal of the CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.
About Dow Jones Indexes
Dow Jones Indexes is part of Dow Jones & Company, which publishes the world's most vital business and financial news and information. Dow Jones Indexes is a premier global provider of investable indexes, including the Dow Jones Averages and the Dow Jones Global, Regional, Country and Sector Titans Indexes and is co-owner of the Pan-European Dow Jones STOXX Indexes. Together with Wilshire Associates, Dow Jones Indexes markets and licenses the Dow Jones Wilshire index family, which includes the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 and its size, style, and sector indexes. Dow Jones Indexes also offers a number of specialty indexes including hedge fund, commodity and credit derivative indexes.
In addition to Dow Jones Indexes, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ) dowjones.com) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron's and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva, with Hearst of SmartMoney and with NBC Universal of the CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.
About FTSE Group
FTSE Group is a world-leader in the creation and management of indexes. With offices in London, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Madrid, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Boston, Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo, FTSE Group services clients in 77 countries worldwide. It calculates and manages the FTSE Global Equity Index series, which includes world-recognised indexes ranging from the FTSE All-World Index, the FTSE4Good series and the FTSEurofirst Index series, as well as domestic indexes such as the prestigious FTSE 100. The company has collaborative arrangements with the Athens, AMEX, Cyprus, Euronext, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, NASDAQ and Taiwan exchanges, as well as Nomura Securities, Hang Seng and Xinhua Finance of China. FTSE has also developed a single sector classification system for global investors in conjunction with Dow Jones Indexes.
About the Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB)
ICB is the new global solution for industry classification. A joint effort of FTSE Group (FTSE) and Dow Jones Indexes, ICB is a comprehensive system for sector and industry analysis, facilitating the comparison of companies across four levels of classification. The system is supported by the ICB global database which contains over 40,000 companies and 45,000 securities worldwide. For more information about ICB, visit www.icbenchmark.com. Fore more information about FTSE, visit www.ftse.com; for more information about Dow Jones Indexes, visit www.djindexes.com.
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