A business reporter takes on a machine in writing earnings

Stacey Vanek Smith of “Planet Money” writes about how NPR reporter Scott Horsley fared in writing the earnings story for Denny’s Corp. compared to a machine programmed to write the same story.

Smith writes, “The rules for the race: Both contenders waited for Denny’s, the diner company, to come out with an earnings report. Once that was released, the stopwatch started. Both wrote a short radio story and get graded on speed and style.

“Scott had a leg up: He used to be a Denny’s regular. He even had a regular waitress, Genevieve, who knew his favorite order (Moons Over My Hammy, obviously).

“When the Denny’s earnings report came out, WordSmith finished writing the story in two minutes. Scott took just over seven minutes. Here’s what they came up with.

To find out which story Horsley wrote, go here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.