Reporting on Coach earnings misses the bag

TheStreet.com media critic Marek Fuchs writes about how reporting on Coach’s earnings was all over the place.

Fuchs writes, “And while others were placing the words ‘cloudy forecast’ in their headlines, The Associated Press weighed in with just the opposite. Forecasts were clear and good: ‘Coach expects to beat in 4Q, reiterates 2008 guidance: Coach says 4th quarter profit likely to beat Wall Street estimates, affirms 2008 view.’

“So what happened here? What should you think? What should you do? What, besides the need to read more than one article on any earnings report, does this teach the savvy investor about how to approach what we read about stocks? And when is The Business Press Maven going to stop asking questions and start answering them?

“The basic issue at play here is complexity, and that’s never a good one for the business media. While Coach surpassed its numbers, you might think the down day had a corrosive effect on perceptions. Though this happens on occasion, the Dow was actually down less than 1%, so it’s the case here that a receding tide swamped all ships. The real issue — and the one more important than the technical hit of expectations — is that the numbers were hit on the strength of the sort of discounting that gives you margin and brand issues.”