Book Review: Journalist's Guide to Financial Statements Gets to the Point

By Bill Barnhart
May 7, 2004 02:37 PM

Review of Jay Taparia's "Understanding Financial Statements: A Journalist's Guide"

The best thing that can be said about Jay Taparia's book is that it's short.

If that sounds like a slam, it's not meant to be. Many journalists, young and old, are put off by lengthy texts on accounting and financial analysis. It runs against most reporters' instincts to trudge through hundreds of pages of instruction or hour upon hour of lectures, on any subject, let alone mathematics.

Taparia completes the task in a little more than 100 pages, enhanced by pop-up explainer boxes, a glossary and guide to Web sites.

There are numerous examples of financial reporters who left journalism for careers in business and investing. Few individuals in business and investing have expanded their careers by marketing themselves as a resource for reporters. Taparia has made that effort over the last several years, through alliances with professional journalism organizations. He also offers a fee-based service to guide reporters through financial issues related to specific stories.

Having spent considerable time with journalists, the former portfolio manager and corporate debt manager at Bank One knows how to get to the point. "Understanding Financial Statements" is written in simple, straightforward prose. Its goal is to help reporters tell stories, not pick stocks or impress their sources.

Accounting is the language of business, to be sure, but it doesn't tell the whole story. The book moves quickly through the basics of the essential financial statements and gets to the meat -- financial ratio analysis. "Imagine ratios as a metal detector. It will tell you where that coin is on the beach, but you still have to dig for it," Taparia writes.

He also figured out what interests journalists the most -- themselves. He chooses two newspaper companies -- Knight-Ridder Inc. and Lee Enterprises Inc. -- for his case study of financial statement analysis.

Compared to other books on the subject, "Understanding Financial Statements" is an easy read. But Taparia's best advice is tough. He urges reporters to create their own spreadsheets of financial data on the companies they cover and to calculate key ratios by hand.

Many online services, such as 10K Wizard.com, offer spreadsheets and financial statement number-crunching. But there's great value in the do-it-yourself approach. "Logging quarterly information into a spreadsheet over time can help the journalist spot trends and make comparisons from previous years," Taparia writes.

Think of it as balancing your checkbook manually every month. There are few better ways to keep your family budget in control. Logging your own spreadsheets for the companies you cover puts you in the executive suite and grants you the power of insightful questions.

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