I’d like a standard footer on every article – is this possible?

If you have a look at your theme, in the index.php (and single.php, archive.php) it probably gives some code that says: “this post is written by author” (in code of course). Just look up that bit, see the fixed text (often “by”) and edit it a little.
I’m not the right person to talk you through the exact coding, but there you may have an idea what you’re looking for.

Is there a plugin or some way of doing this?

try the following code; add inside your theme’s functions.php

<?php
function my_generic_carbon_footprint($content)
{	global $wp_query;

	if ($wp_query->is_singular){
	$msg = __('This artices was written by joe who works for abc inc, he is an expert in xyz - contact him with any quereie et cetera');
	$msg = '<p class="entry-footer">'.$msg.'</p>';
	return $content.PHP_EOL.$msg;
	} else {
		return $content;
	}
}

add_filter('the_content','my_generic_carbon_footprint');
?>

Hm, functions.php…
Zascar, listen to Chaos, she’s much better in CSS and PHP than I am. I work on trial-and-error, she on knowledge!

Instead of adding a function to your functions.php file I am inclined to agree with Gangleri and suggest you add it to the template.

Just below where your single.php (for permalink pages) has <?php the_content(); ?> put what you want to display.

<div class="postfoot">This post was by .....</div>

If you don’t have a single.php file in your theme, add it below <?php the_content(); ?> like this to limit it to permalink pages only:

<?php if(is_single()): ?><div class="postfoot">This post was by .....</div><?php endif; ?>

If you want it to display the name dynamically by the author of the post you use the author template tags. Like:

<div class="postfoot">This post was by <?php the_author(); ?> is <?php the_author_description(); ?></div>

I like using the author description cause it allows you to change the description in the admin interface in the profile.

Perfect thanks guys