“The problem with governance stories is that they are convoluted and complicated. If they weren’t so convoluted, shareholders would do something…. There’s an incentive for the parties engaged in the company to hide and confuse what’s going on,” according to Alexander Dyck, professor of finance and business economics at the University of Toronto, who has researched the impact of news stories on companies.

That’s why it’s vitally important for business reporters writing about complicated accounting maneuvers to avoid jargon and present facts in a user-friendly way. Explaining and defining terms, avoiding insider terminology and writing clearly help attract readers and viewers to stories they might otherwise skip as too dense.