How business reporting helps one understand numbers and markets

Editor Britta Waller of Pace Communications, which produces magazines for companies such as Southwest Airlines and US Airways, writes about how she became facile with understanding markets and numbers.

Waller writes, “Most of the editors I know joke about their lack of skill with understanding numbers or even doing simple arithmetic without a calculator. ‘We’re word people’ is a typical comment.

“But I’ve tried not to be intimidated by writing or editing content that has to do with numbers, money, business or investment. In fact, the majority of the content I handle at Pace Communications falls into these categories.

“My dad asked me where I had gained my ‘above-average level of investment knowledge.’

“I had to think about that one. I decided that microeconomics in college was a good start for the basics — supply-and-demand charts, limiting and non-limiting factors, gross versus net.

“Working as a business reporter was the next good step. I remember the day that I learned what a bucket shop was and had the pleasure of teaching my editor. (In case you don’t know, it’s a Wall Street firm that doesn’t have the financial security to see through the initial public offerings it tries to launch. Both the company owners and the investors are left in the lurch, and sometimes the firm partners end up prosecuted.)

“Years of fact-checking business and investment stories also helped a lot. And following the coverage of scandals like Tyco and World Com, I gained new knowledge mixed in with my shock and outrage. I even read a few personal finance books along the way, some of which I’ll discuss later.”

Read more here.