Categories: OLD Media Moves

Business press suckered in sequential reporting on earnings

TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs writes that some companies are asking business reporters to cover their earnings sequentially and not year-over-year, and some are being suckered into the tactic.

Fuchs wrote, “Texas Instruments reported after the close on Monday. And then there’s the press release. The first two bullet points, coming right after the headline, and in bold no less, are about how revenues and earnings were up … sequentially.

TI Revenue Up 7% Sequentially

EPS Up $0.42, Up 20% Sequentially

“Sequential. Sequential. Sequential.

“Texas Instruments is really pressing the sequential point here. In the second sentence of the body of the press release, we hear about those revenues again — up 7% compared to the ‘prior quarter.’

“Of course, we are soon reading a mention about how, compared to the same quarter last year (the second), revenues were down. And this, of course, is all The Business Press Maven cares about. Each quarter, you see, has its own characteristics — its own seasonal issues and the like — which is why it is generally accepted practice to make year-over-year comparisons.

“Sequential comparisons are for those who want to avoid the more telling one.”

Read more here. Fuchs notes that the Financial Times dutifully reported the earnings sequentially.

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.