Four tips to get out of the earnings season rut
This Oshkosh military vehicle in Afghanistan is battle ready.
After years of covering a beat, earnings stories can lose their appeal for some reporters. Many reporters fall into a “plug and play” role. But that’s not what Scott Malone of Reuters did in his piece about Oshkosh Corp. Here the numbers aren’t as important as company investor Carl Icahn’s influence. He writes:
“Icahn, who owns 10 percent of the maker of military vehicles, said Oshkosh management does not do enough to boost shareholder returns. The company promises to provide investors with clearer benchmarks to measure its performance.
‘We heard the message that shareholders would like us to provide more targets to measure our progress,’ Chief Financial Officer David Sagehorn said on a conference call after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results. ‘As we go through our fiscal 2012, we will work on ways to provide targets.’”
Scott shared four tips for helping reporters get out of the rut.
Tip 1: Ask, “What’s the real story here?”
“Take a step back and ask yourself if the best story is really in the numbers,” Scott says. “Sometimes it is – if a company falls dramatically short of Wall Street’s expectations, readers will want to know why. But often there’s another story to be told that’s more compelling.”
Tip 2: Listen closely to quarterly conference calls to see if company executives go “off script.”
Do your homework ahead of time to know what the talking points will be so you’ll know if they’re offering new information. “Those small breaks can signal significant changes,” Scott says.
Tip 3: Boil it down.
Scott says if the numbers are the story, don’t bog readers down trying to report on everything. Instead, focus on one or two numbers then use quotes and anecdotes to explain the rest. “You can convey as much information, and more importantly give the reader a frame to understand them in, that way.”
Tip 4: Go beyond what readers can get elsewhere.
Investors can easily access earnings reports and conference calls online. Therefore you need to “to offer exclusive information or insights, so they have a reason to choose to read your story,” Scott says.
