Categories: OLD Media Moves

AT&T coverage at opposite ends

TheStreet.com’s Marek Fuchs wrote Friday that coverage of AT&T’s earnings earlier in the week had two widely divergent takes on the numbers.

He wrote, “Look at what The Wall Street Journal said about AT&T’s Tuesday earnings report: Wireless Growth, Mergers Fuel AT&T Net. Got that? Wireless growth helped lead to an almost doubling of first-quarter revenue and net profit.

“Now check out The New York Times’ headline on the same first-quarter earnings: AT&T Earnings Beat Forecasts Despite Slow Market for Mobile Phones. Slow market for mobile? Uh, The Wall Street Journal told me that mobile’s growth fueled that good net.

“The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times weren’t the only awkward pairing. Dow Jones’ MarketWatch said, ‘AT&T profit doubles on merger, mobile.’ Countered Reuters: ‘AT&T profit doubles, but wireless lags.’

“Strength, weakness. I guess one man’s double is another’s lag. Jokes aside, words should not be such an imprecise measurement of financial fact.

“Which side is right? One has to be, right? Though it would seem impossible, both sides actually include mistaken half-assumptions and miss the key point. They (OK, I) don’t call the business media the lowest form of thinkers for nothing.”

Read more 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.