The annual report, which includes the annual financial statements, usually contains many story ideas and may reveal new information about the company’s strategy or its operations during the previous year. Often, the annual report is more revealing than the periodic earning reports companies file, because regulators require more information.

In addition to reading through the entire report, reporters should pay special attention to the year-end financial statements.

Raw numbers only rarely make intriguing stories, but as with any kind of reporting, it is the new information, glimpses into company strategy and potential changes in the company’s operations that provide ideas for stories.

• Look for changes from one year to another in all of the numbers reported; percentage changes reveal more valuable information.

• Ask whether the changes make sense in light of the current economic environment.

• Study risk factors for potential story ideas. Is risk being properly assessed and prepared for? For example, in its 2007 annual report, the Coca-Cola Co. cited water scarcity and poor water quality, and the effect they could have on Coke’s profitability.

• Read the footnotes. They often lead to further story ideas. As Columbia Journalism Review pointed out in “Avoiding Future Enrons,” a careful reading of footnotes in Enron’s financial reports could have prompted questions about the extent of the off-balance sheet partnerships and conflicts of interest. Another potential red flag is the relationships a company has with clients and suppliers, often referred to in footnotes.

• Look for any changes in the company’s accounting policies, or the potential impact of complying with new accounting regulations.

Investopedia, the financial education website, ad-vises investors to learn to recognize what it calls green, yellow and red flags that are often embedded in such areas of the annual report as “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies.” Learn how to recognize these: http://bit.ly/HJg8vC

• Look for the size of debt obligations in the next year and beyond, and consider what sources of funding the company has.

• Study the section on lawsuits and other legal matters. Sometimes shareholders lodge the lawsuits, but suits by vendors, clients and competitors can also be a tip-off to allegedly shady practices, or at least an indication of dissatisfaction with the company.

• Often, the company’s account of its prior year and discussion of future strategy simply put a positive spin on information already known, but sometimes story ideas can be buried in these discussions.

• “Management discussion and analysis,” included in most annual reports and required by some securities regulators, provides management with an opportunity to explain past events and outline plans for growth. This section helps provide insights into management’s style. The information in this section is unaudited.

• Are major company purchases or sales realistically valued?

For example, Fortis Healthcare India announced it was buying the overseas healthcare business of its family owners, Malvindor and Shivinder Singh, in September 2011. Soon afterward, investment analysts expressed concerns about whether the $665 million intragroup transaction really was fair for shareholders of the listed company.

An analysis by Economic Times of India questioned whether the company might be paying as much as a 20 percent premium for the business. The newspaper used regulatory filings, company presentations and press re-leases to arrive at its conclusions.

Many business journalists write pro forma stories about companies’ periodic financial statements, or earnings. But a more critical reading of the financial statements can lead to enterprising stories that unearth telling details.

Learning to spot potential trouble spots in corporate actions or decisions is usually the path to good stories.