In an effort to support the public dissemination of information on the state of U.S. corporate governance, independent corporate governance research firm The Corporate Library has initiated a series of comparative reviews of large corporations' governance practices. The first study in the series, a review of a compilation of Household Services-related industry sectors, was run using The Corporate Library's Corporate Benchmarker analysis tool. The result of this evaluation suggests that there is still no overall consistency in corporate governance policies and practices.

Examples of two of the largest variations as identified by the tool include:

--  Multiple classes of voting stock are in place at more than half of
   media and entertainment companies, but virtually absent in the rest of the
   Household Services-related industries.
  
--  Around half of communications services, financial services and retail
   grocery companies have a formal governance policy posted on their website,
   compared to 90% for residential construction and 100% for health &
   disability insurance.
   In conducting the analysis, the 41 fundamental corporate governance policy and compliance variables that make up The Corporate Library's Governance Practices Compliance Score were compared using Corporate Benchmarker in an industry-averaged, side-by-side analysis.

Data for the study was derived from The Corporate Library's database which contains information on over 3,000 U.S. public corporations. This data resource is updated on a regular basis from governance-related filings and policy statements. Additional reviews are planned to take place throughout the year.

About The Corporate Library

The Corporate Library is an independent research firm that provides corporate governance information products, research services and data to a broad variety of clients including institutional investors, corporations, D&O liability insurers, law firms, accounting firms, executive search firms, academic institutions and the media. The Corporate Library produces the definitive ratings of U.S. corporate boards of directors, allowing businesses that subscribe to the service to evaluate governance as an element of investment and other risk. The Corporate Library is also a leading publisher of corporate governance reports and studies, including reports on executive compensation, governance practices, and mutual fund proxy voting, which its analysts compile using its extensive database of over 3,000 public companies. Additional information on The Corporate Library and its suite of online corporate governance data and analysis products can be found on its website at www.thecorporatelibrary.com.