High-Definition News 

By Mark Robichaux -- Multichannel News, 1/30/2012 12:01:00 AM

As you leaf through these pages (and remind yourself how good paper feels to read), I hope you’ll notice subtle improvements in our content, too.

In particular, we’re focused lately on making our charts and graphics more relevant to readers. In the medium we cover, pictures are everything. Often a graph, combined with brief analysis, can say more than a 2,000-word story.

We’re trying to deliver a multiplatform tool so valuable in your work that you’d feel exposed starting the week without reading us. I’d argue this print product is the perfect browser, where readers see vivid infographics and have the option of random access to stories completely relevant to their specific jobs — and lives. Print, if you think about it, is the lightest mobile reader. And who doesn’t like a good page-turner?

We’ve made some of our biggest changes on the stock page. Now, some of you may be thinking “Mark, we get your love of print, but stock pages … in print … really?” Yes, really.

We now have in place a customized portfolio of the cable-TV industry with an array of metrics to judge a company’s performance — even within its sector. Now at a glance — without pressing a button — you can compare a firm’s stock price with a week ago, month ago, year ago and the 52-week high and low.

And we off er a diagnostic metric for the entire industry in a single number — the Multichannel News Index, the combined prices of all the stocks listed on the page, divided by sector and weighted by market capitalization — against the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ.

Our senior finance editor, Mike Farrell, handpicks the latest reports on stocks in the news with “Tip Sheet,” which puts the numbers into context. And a full year of a company’s monthly performance is on display in our “In Focus” stock feature.

We’ll continue to tinker and improve on these pages to bring you an indispensable read. And if you’ve got an idea on how to improve it, I’d love to hear it. mrobichaux@nbmedia.com.