They know how to calculate percentages, ratios, rates of change and other relationships between numbers that tell far better stories than raw data can. They can translate numbers into terms that readers and viewers can understand. Competent journalists know the difference between the median and the mean. They can read a budget just as well as they can a press release. They always check the margin of error before deciding if a poll is worth reporting, and always explain what that margin means in the stories they write.
Competent journalists compare numbers before declaring that an index has plunged or skyrocketed.
Journalists with numerical competence are more important than ever in today's highly technical world. They are the writers and editors who can assess and explain scientific, medical, technological and economic developments. They are the journalists who can find stories in databases by crunching numbers themselves, instead of waiting for someone with a vested interest to do it for them. In online newsrooms, these competent journalists can make informed decisions about uploading content, knowing how long it will take to download at so many kilobytes per second. Journalists who fail to master math are missing one of the key building blocks of excellence.