Finding the narrative within the numbers and analysis

Barbara Perry Bind of the Greenwich Citizen in Connecticut interviewed Bloomberg Television anchor Margaret Brennan about her career and her current job.

Here is an excerpt:

As the anchor of Bloomberg TV’s “InBusiness with Margaret Brennan,” what is your approach to the news?

Finance is the first globalized industry. The economic crisis showed us how intertwined the world’s financial hubs and banking systems are. That interconnectedness is just one part of the change that is coming to the rest of the business and social world. The economic gravity shift toward the emerging markets is bringing drastic changes to virtually everything. I try to embrace that internationalized sensibility in reporting and also in communicating with my audience.

I always try to remember that our viewers are watching my program simultaneously in the U.S., Europe, the Mideast, Africa, South America and Asia. Bloomberg TV has such a wide footprint around the world — I get viewer e-mails from everywhere from South America to the Emirates.

I also like to find the narratives within the numbers and analysis. An earnings report from a company isn’t just about profits and losses. Take a look at Wal-Mart‘s financial reports, and you can see just how many more Americans are buying their groceries with food stamps. Read a steel company’s report and you can get a sense of the cities being built in China and Brazil. Watch J.P. Morgan or Bank of America’s earnings for a sense of how those banks are still struggling with what to do with the Americans who are still unable to afford their homes. You can find these news nuggets that give you a sense of where the world is going.

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