The Media Misread the New York Times' Results

The Business Press Maven's head is bent in utter sorrow. Why this time?

Well, all the way back on Monday, I was forced to lament the fact that sometimes it was better to just read a company's press release rather than the articles that follow it.

As you'll recall, the watermelon-sized merger of Ingersoll Rand(IR Quote - Cramer on IR - Stock Picks) and Trane(TT Quote - Cramer on TT - Stock Picks) was announced just as Sunday night was turning into Monday, and since there were not many sober, experienced business journalists around in the middle of the night, what hit up on the wires for hours on end were regurgitations on the original press release announcing the $10 billion deal.

At least you know a press release is biased, I opined, but when you read the same stuff from a business journalist -- even with the company-issued bullet points rearranged for the appearance of independence -- you run a larger risk of being duped, lulled into a false sense that you are reading independent thought.

Today we saw a worse example, and it was as if the evil incompetence of the business media finally won out. Ask me sometime, and I'll tell you how I really feel.

On Tuesday, The New York Times(NYT Quote - Cramer on NYT - Stock Picks) reported what at first appeared to be a small miracle: revenue that budged up. Then the press release, about as forthright and appropriate as any you will see, mentioned right in the second paragraph the reasons why: The month had an extra week, and one of the company's few hot products came out in November this year instead of December. Their explanation was clear, concise and featured prominently:

"November's advertising results benefited from a shift in the Company's fiscal calendar. In 2006 the fiscal month-end was November 26 while in 2007 it was December 2, adding an extra "holiday season" week to the month. The New York Times Media Group's advertising revenues also benefited from a shift in the timing of T: Holiday, which was published in fiscal November this year compared with fiscal December last year. T: Holiday's advertising pages were up 8% over last year's publication and it was the first issue featured on the new T Web site at NYTimes.com/magazine."

And how did the business media pick up this key factor, one fed to them with a spoon? Uh, they dropped the spoon. And not to put too fine a point on it, the egg that was on the spoon cracked to pieces and turned rancid.