Insight: Covering Black Friday — The new Olympics

We previously described earnings season as a business journalist’s version of Christmas. Well if it’s Christmas, then Black Friday is a business journalist’s Olympics.

Black Friday and the days that follow force retail reporters to race around shopping centers searching for an interesting take on what is as nothing short of a marathon.

The National Retail Federation, which tracks retail sales throughout the year, estimates 135.8 million shoppers, or 59% of shoppers, will participate in Thanksgiving weekend deals both in stores and online.

While the numbers themselves seem staggering, the challenge business journalists face is how to not only give those numbers context but also write stories that provide a fresh take on the traditional Black Friday story.

Lindsey Rupp and fellow Bloomberg reporter Lauren Coleman-Lochner said data must be looked at skeptically and always placed in context of the whole weekend, but they also noted Bloomberg’s exclusive point-of-sale data will give them a potential edge this year.

Check out Bloomberg’s coverage of this year’s Black Friday madness.

“To be painfully honest, I think a lot of the coverage does look alike because in some ways there is only so many things you can do,” Coleman-Lochner said.

“I think in terms of our coverage though, there is some of this exclusive data, like the point-of-sale data, that gives us an advantage. That will show what people are actually ringing up opposed to people who are just wandering the mall talking to journalists.”

Coleman-Lochner also said tracking the unraveling of the weekend is key in accurately reporting Black Friday.

“What we typically do, and it might be different this year, is have the Black Friday story out on the day of, and then we basically update it throughout the weekend,” Coleman-Lochner said. “This means by the time the Sunday story is out it doesn’t really look the same as the Friday story except for a couple of the broader quotes.”

Rupp said it is important for journalists, particularly new journalists, to get out and speak with shoppers directly about their spending habits.

“A lot of it is anecdotes with what people are seeing and what they’re thinking,” Rupp said. “And once we hear things we can pull other data to use, like iPhone 6 sales data.”

Overall both reporters believe there is an inherit value to the shopping holiday in relation to its impact on the retail market and the snapshot it can provide about the health of the economy.

“One reason we’re watching it is that people want some sort of a quick gauge on how consumers are feeling,” Coleman-Lochner said. “It’s not scientific obviously but we do want to know if people are coming out, whether there is any excitement or if there are hot gifts coming out.”

“You get to see this macroeconomic touch point and a representation of consumer behavior, which makes it interesting.”