Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 7, 2006 -The world’s media wrote
about hedge funds a record 39,989 times in 2005, a 43% jump from 2004
and more than six times as often as in 2000, according to 100 Times a
Day: Hedge Funds and the Media, new research from Walek & Associates,
the leading independent public relations firm serving the global hedge
fund industry. 

“More than 100 times a day the world’s press writes about hedge
funds and their influence and insights in M&A, corporate governance,
trading, investing and other core areas of the global economy,” said
Thomas Walek, President of Walek & Associates, as the research was
released at the 7th Annual Hedge Funds World Conference here. 

“The message to hedge fund managers is clear – ignore the press at
your peril,” Walek said.   “Today, being a smart hedge fund manager
is not enough.  Single style, multi-strategy and fund-of-fund hedge fund
executives must realize the importance and persistence of the media and
take steps to control their own media exposure and make it work for
them.” 

“Already in 2006 we are seeing a big increase in hedge funds
interacting with the media.  As changing U.S. regulations allow greater
media transparency for hedge funds, they continue to influence and sit
in the first chair in deals, transactions and markets around the
world,” said Walek, who authored the study as part of the firm’s
“Alternative View” research and analysis series.

2005 Highlights

A record 39,989 articles mentioning “hedge funds” were published in
2005, according to the latest Walek & Associates research, which is
based on data from Factiva for the period of January 1, 2005 to December
31, 2005.  Of those, 10,609 articles were “features,” in which the
term “hedge funds” was included in the headline or the article’s
first paragraph.  Of the nearly 40,000 articles, 9,717 appeared in the
world’s top 25 publications including Nikkei, Financial Times, The
Wall Street Journal, Reuters and the South China Morning Post. 

The second quarter was the most active period of 2005 for hedge
fund-related articles, when 12,244 articles appeared.  This coincided
with a downturn in global equities markets and an upturn in global
credit market jitters associated with problems at US automakers, Walek
noted. 

A complete copy of the study, 100 Times a Day: Hedge Funds and the
Media, is available at http://www.walek.com/documents/WA100TimesaDay.pdf

Walek & Associates

Walek & Associates is the leading independent public relations firm
serving the global hedge fund industry and is the fifth-largest and
fastest-growing independent public relations firm in the U.S. serving
corporate and financial clients. www.walek.com.