Business reporting pet peeves

The Analytical Wealth blog has a great list of business reporting pet peeves that should be required reading for any business journalist.

Here are a few:

1. Calling companies like Wal-Mart and Target competitors even though they have dramatically different customer demographics, just because they’re both retailers. No one calls BMW and Hyundai competitors and they both sell cars, why do the same with Wal-Mart and Target?
2. Rarely noting that the YoY customer spending increases (for the past year or so) have been less then the YoY increase in  inflation, thus rendering the so called “increases” null and void.
3. The consistent focus on automaker market share when there is very little relationship between market share and profits, because selling 1 car for $X in profit is better than selling 5 cars for $0.5X in profit.

Read more here.