Med Business

Business & Finance News Reporting

This skill specializes med-news-reporter for the business beat. Read med-news-reporter first for the general 6-step workflow (type selection, material audit, fact-check, balance, ethics, literacy). This file adds business-beat-specific discipline on top.

Overview

Distilled from financial-journalism curricula at NCCU 新聞系、NTU 新聞研究所、Columbia Journalism Review (Business Desk), Medill (Business Journalism), CUNY Newmark, Reuters Institute. Covers the four main business-news sub-types: earnings / IPO-M&A / regulatory-policy / industry-trend reporting. Core mandate: every financial figure must trace to base period, scope (consolidated vs standalone; domestic vs group), source (CFO statement / 公開資訊觀測站 / analyst estimate), and confidence level (audited vs preliminary vs forecast). The non-obvious failure is when the literal number is correct but the missing context lets readers compare apples-to-oranges.

IRON LAW: Numbers Need Stewardship

Every financial figure in the piece — revenue, EPS, growth rate, margin,
valuation multiple — must explicitly carry FOUR metadata tags: (a) BASE
PERIOD / FISCAL YEAR (e.g., "113年度合併報表"), (b) SCOPE (consolidated
vs individual; domestic vs group; operating vs including-financial gains),
(c) SOURCE (CFO statement / 公開資訊觀測站 / analyst consensus / research
report), and (d) CONFIDENCE (audited / preliminary / forward-looking).
Without all four, the figure is marked [待查證] or omitted. Default LLM
behavior is to drop context for "cleaner prose" or assume implied scope
— this suppresses that default by requiring explicit stewardship. The
reader cannot infer scope from a number alone; ambiguity is not efficiency.

Why this is non-obvious: a headline "Company posts record 5B EPS" is technically true (audited, consolidated, 2025 FY) but sounds miraculous without the context that it's 50% higher than last year due to a one-time merger gain, not operating performance. When readers hear "record EPS", they assume baseline comparable operating earnings — a fundamental mismatch. Stewardship audit catches this by forcing every number to carry its scope flags.

Rationalization Table — these justifications DO NOT override the Iron Law:

When to Use

Trigger conditions:

• User supplies financial material — 財報新聞、法說會逐字稿、公開說明書、投資人簡報、SEC EDGAR filing、IPO 招股書、重大訊息、併購公告 — and asks for a news piece.
• User asks for "財報季報導" / "IPO 新聞" / "併購分析" / "監理解讀" / "產業趨勢報導" / "earnings story" / "M&A coverage" / "regulatory impact piece".
• User paraphrases: "把這份財報做成新聞", "法說會怎麼寫", "SEC filing 有什麼亮點", "整理成市場分析", "寫一篇產業動向".

Input signals:

• Named companies, financial metrics (revenue, EPS, margin, P/E, ROA, EBITDA), fiscal periods, accounting bases.
• Earnings transcripts, investor presentations, regulatory filings, 公開資訊觀測站 announcements, analyst reports.
• Direct quotes from CFO, investor-relations staff, analysts, regulators.

When NOT to use:

• Company press release in the company's own voice → use pr-press-release.
• Investment thesis or buy/sell recommendation → use fin-investment-thesis.
• Marketing copy promoting a stock / fund / investment product → use mkt-*.
• General economic news without company-specific angle → use med-news-reporter (not this beat).

Methodology

Step 0: Defer general workflow to med-news-reporter

Read or have already loaded med-news-reporter for: material audit, fact-checking, source-strength tagging, balance principle, media-ethics check, media-literacy self-check. Do not re-implement those steps here. This file specializes Steps 1, 2, 3, and adds a business-specific Step 4 (Number Provenance Audit).

Step 1: Classify the business-story sub-type

If material spans sub-types (e.g., an earnings call with M&A announcement), classify by the primary news driver.

Step 2: Source vetting & financial credibility

Every number must carry four metadata flags:

1. Base period — "113 年度" / "113 年 Q2" / "累計 1-6 月" / "2026 財年" (date ambiguity kills credibility)
2. Scope — 合併報表(consolidated) vs 個體/個別(individual); 國內(domestic) vs 國際(international); 持續營業(operating) vs including 停業部門; 經常(operating income) vs including 業外(non-operating/financial gains)
3. Source — CFO statement (audited) / 公開資訊觀測站 preliminary / analyst consensus / research firm estimate / internal forecast
4. Confidence — 已審定(audited) / 未審(unaudited) / 初步(preliminary) / 預估/展望(forward-looking, include risk disclaimer)

Source tier tagging (extends med-news-reporter's tiering with financial-specific tiers):

Step 3: Business-specific risk check

Beyond med-news-reporter's general ethics check, add:

1. 內線交易 / 市場操縱 (證交法 §155, §157-1):

   • 重大訊息 publication timing: 公開資訊觀測站 timestamp, not press-release timing. If material info disclosed before 公開資訊觀測站 publication, that is non-public — reporting it may expose risk.
   • Embargo rules: some companies embargo financial information until official release time; publishing early can expose the reporter to liability.

2. 會計舞弊紅旗 — watch for:

   • Revenue recognition shifting (e.g., quarter-end channel-stuffing, sales to related parties, side agreements)
   • Margin compression with no explanation (could signal pricing power loss or cost hiding)
   • Huge accounts-receivable growth without revenue growth (cash-flow risk)
   • One-time items that repeat (no longer "one-time"; operating deterioration masked)
   • Related-party transaction spike (transfer pricing risk)

3. 估值斷言需避免 — never write:

   • ❌ "The stock is fairly/overvalued at 12× P/E" (requires multiple-comparison context)
   • ❌ "Company is worth 100B" (absent valuation method disclosure)
   • ✅ "Stock trades at 12× P/E vs peer median 18×, suggesting discount or slower growth"

4. 匯率影響揭露 — when international revenue/EPS is cited:

   • Always state currency basis. If reporting "EPS $2.50 USD", note if converted at spot or fixed rate.
   • When Y-o-Y comparisons span periods with different FX rates, disclose FX headwind/tailwind separately from operating impact.

5. 重大訊息揭露合規:

   • 公開資訊觀測站 公告 = 官方發布 — use as primary source.
   • 公司新聞稿 ≠ 公開資訊觀測站 公告 — they can have different timestamps and scopes.
   • Report based on 公開資訊觀測站 timestamp + regulatory-filing scope, not company PR spin.

Step 4: Number Provenance Audit (business-specific addition)

For every financial figure in the draft:

1. Trace to source material — find the exact line in the earnings transcript, filing, or 公開資訊觀測站 announcement.
2. Tag base period — write the fiscal year/quarter in parentheses: "營收 100 億 (113年度)", not just "營收 100 億".
3. Declare scope — if the figure is consolidated, write it; if it's guidance, mark "展望". If unusual (e.g., pro-forma), say so.
4. Check for one-time items — if EPS or margin is boosted by a gain, segregate: "Operating EPS $1.20, including $0.30 one-time merger gain".
5. Validate comparisons — if claiming "grew 15%", verify: versus what base year/quarter? Same period last year or trailing-twelve-months? Same scope?