Why Numbers Matter in a "Profession of Words"

With an influx of news stories concerning the economy and President Obama's stimulus package, I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at the statistics involved in an average Associated Press economic story. In dedication to Joe's recent lecture on numbers, I will attempt to assess the readability and relevance of the statistics in the article (despite my pathetic math skills).

The lede is quite informative, but has an overabundance of words and information. As an editor, I would trim it down or extend it into the nut graph.

In the third paragraph, the writer (Andrew Taylor) does an excellent job explaining to readers how the taxpayer credit would affect the average couple. As Joe mentioned, making numbers meaningful in stories contributes to the article's impact. In this case, the writer went the extra mile to connect the government’s decision with amount of money citizens would receive. Readers cannot help but feel as if the writer is sympathetic toward the average citizen.

In the fourth paragraph, the term "Officials estimated it would mean..." sounds awkward. Perhaps "Officials estimated the change would result in $13..." would work better.

Overall, listing how much and where money is allocated requires solid reporting, but the reader will most likely get bored. Personally, I cannot fathom the difference between $70 billion and $87 billion. Instead, the reader wants to know how these changes will affect his or her daily life. If presented differently, the numbers may not be as hard to swallow and the writer could also establish trends by comparing the data with previous years.

Since the article is considered hard news, I wouldn’t recommend translating money into anything crazy like Ferraris or kittens, but at least something slightly more interesting. For instance, the plan would give a collective $87 billion to all 52 states for Medicaid. If these programs are already in debt, how would $87 billion help? Does this translate into millions of operating tables or additional personnel each year? Would this measure make other forms of health care more affordable? These are questions the writer needs to address in the article or in a follow-up story.

Nevertheless, Taylor wrote clearly and with tact — something that's often forgotten in budget articles. Maybe he tried to make the statistics more interesting, but was refused by his editor. Whatever the case may be, hard news needs to be compelling to the reader. The writer's job is to synthesize the information for the reader, not provide a hard copy of the stimulus package.

If applicable, I try to find the most interesting way to present numbers. For units such as acres, liters and grams, this is a fantastic Web site to play around with. Who knew 548,903 acres equals 0.86 Luxembourgs?