PG, I just had a lengthy conversation with Brandon Ferguson at OTC Markets and believe I got the whole story and why you and I have been given conflicting information.
When Peter (or someone on behalf of Peter) first uploaded the PDF document on Tuesday morning, he selected distribution only for the OTC Markets website. On Tuesday afternoon, the PR was resubmitted selecting distribution via PR Newswire to go to websites only (e.g. Yahoo!, iHub, etc.) and the fee was charged.
Brandon said it is common for there to be up to a 4-hour delay in release because PR Newswire will often contact a company to verify origin or if they have questions about the release, which was apparently the case. He said PR Newswire also might suggest format changes such as the change in using all caps in the header, which was done in the original PDF release and was not done in the release distributed by PR Newswire. It speaks to his character that he did not explain that to you or others who inquired.
OTC Markets does not know why it took so long after Peter reissued the PR Tuesday afternoon selecting and paying for PR Newswire distribution but it appears to be an issue with PR Newswire instead of OTC Markets. Perhaps PR Newswire had trouble contacting the company as no contact information was provided in the PR.
The bottom line is that Peter did issue Tuesday's PR twice, once selecting distribution only for the OTC Markets website and later for distribution to websites via PR Newswire.
Brandon also said that it appears today's PR was scheduled for distribution via PR Newswire right from the start and experienced a common delay if PR Newswire wanted to first contact the company.
Anyone who calls OTC Markets to verify should insist that the representative read the notes about the PR. When I spoke to Krystal yesterday, she looked only at the original PR issued Tuesday morning and saw that the distribution for OTC Markets only.
Lastly, Brandon said that OTC Markets may make it a policy to no longer discuss origination issues regarding company press releases.
AI
