Full Disclosure for Financial Footnotes

As a recent BusinessWeek blurb reported, www.footnoted.org celebrated its five-year anniversary this month. The site "takes a closer look at the things that companies try to bury in their routine SEC filings." As the site's founder -- business reporter and editor Michelle Leder -- notes, some of the posts on the site tend toward quirky (Warren Buffett's son depends on ConAgra for his health insurance) and others ferret out instances of questionable accounting, excessive compensation, and potential financial reporting shenanigans. The latter posts tend to receive coverage from larger news organizations with increasing frequency.

The site's staff is lean, well-trained (one lawyer, one reporter-turned lawyer, and Leder), knowledgeable, and often entertaining. "When it comes to reading SEC filings, like Dante's Inferno," reads an August post, there are "definitely levels of hell." The comment refers to Apple's most recent 8K, which contains significant changes to the company's bylaws. "And bylaw changes," the blurb continues, "clearly qualify as being close to the center of the earth because of the legalistic language that takes more than a few cups of coffee to get through."

Fortunately, footnoted.org's team seems well-caffeinated.