The AMer vs. the PMer business story

I read this short article on the Tribune's Web site from the Associated Press:

Dominick's owner sees slight rise in 3Q profit

The Associated Press

12:05 PM CDT, October 7, 2008

Higher gas sales and a boost from its more upscale stores helped grocer Safeway Inc. -- the California-based owner of Chicago-area chain Dominick's Finer Foods -- post a slight rise in profit in its third fiscal quarter.

The nation's second-biggest grocery store said Tuesday its profit rose nearly 3 percent to $199.7 million, or 46 cents per share, for the three months ended Sept. 6, from $194.6 million, or 44 cents per share, last year.

Its sales rose nearly 4 percent to $10.17 billion from $9.78 billion, helped by higher gas sales and contributions from its more upscale Lifestyle stores.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 47 cents per share and sales of $10.08 billion.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway plans to continue cutting costs and expects 2008 profit to at least match Wall Street expectations.

Its shares rose $1.05, or 4.8 percent, to $22.82 in morning trading.

I think this is a good example of what the stylebook calls 'The AMer," which is the story when the news first hits. It doesn't speak to the people that made this change in stock prices happen or how it affects them. It's only what happened, and focuses highly on the numbers instead of why the numbers are the way they are.

But the stylebook says that the numbers are made by the CEOs and the decisions they made. By using real people that affected and will be affected by the reported numbers, the story is framed better.

To transform this story into a "PMer," I think one would have to draw on the sentence that says, "Its sales rose nearly 4 percent to $10.17 billion from $9.78 billion, helped by higher gas sales and contributions from its more upscale Lifestyle stores."

In a time when businesses are struggling, why is it that this company saw an increase in sales? Are people eating at home more often? Did Dominick's make some sort of decision that increased interest in their product? Did some workers get laid off?

Sometimes it is important to get the news to its readers as fast as possible. But many times, it is more important to put that news into some sort of context to make the reader understand and care about what we are giving them as the news for the day.