Numbers in the newsroom (2001)

Second edition, by Sarah Cohen (Investigative Reporters and Editors, 2014) The fastest cure for the moment a budget, a crime rate or a poll lands on the desk and the story depends on getting the arithmetic right. Cohen, a former economist at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, covers fractions, rates, percentages, change and averages, always in terms of the stories they produce. Her core rule is that almost every number needs comparing with something: another time, another place or a total. Read it before the data books, not after.