NZHerald fail at math or typing

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NonprayingMantis

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Topic # 58548 14-Mar-2010 11:36

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10631917

TVNZ staff have splashed out more than $3 million on company credit cards in the past six months - despite reports the state broadcaster is aiming to slash up to $40 million from its budget.

Figures released under the Official Information Act show more than half of TVNZ's 900 employees are issued with credit cards, with the average monthly spend almost $11,000.

The numbers smelt a bit funny to me, so I did a bit of simple math

$3m in 6 months is 500k per month between all the employees.

more than half of the 900 staff have cards. Lets say, for simplicity, that it is 500 staff have credit cards.

that is an average monthly spend of $1,000. not $11,000 as the herald claim.

quality journalism there

newznz

73 posts

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Reply # 307056 14-Mar-2010 12:01

The Herald have always been TVNZ haters (and bad at maths) - they are all washed up ammeters who are jealous of the TV industry and just don't have what it takes to work in it.

oldmaknz

536 posts

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Reply # 307058 14-Mar-2010 12:10

NZ Herald is lol. They screw up frequently.

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bazzer

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Reply # 307262 15-Mar-2010 08:39

Perhaps they have excluded all the credit cards that didn't get anything spent on them? Perhaps by "average" they are referring to the median, not the mean? There may be a number of explanations for the quoted statistic.

Another interesting point is that of the, say, 500 CCs issued less than 100 have a limit of greater than $5,000. So that's really great going if they can average $11,000!

NonprayingMantis

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Reply # 307294 15-Mar-2010 09:44

bazzer: Perhaps they have excluded all the credit cards that didn't get anything spent on them? Perhaps by "average" they are referring to the median, not the mean? There may be a number of explanations for the quoted statistic.

even if that were true (which I think highly highly unlikely) it is still shoddy journalism.
Excluding the cards with nothing spent on them is a) arbitrary and b) probably not even possible considering TVNZ refused to give them the level of spending.

"Requests for a detailed breakdown of spending by TVNZ's top executives
were turned down by general counsel Brent McAnulty."

using the median without stating it as such is also stupid. In non-academic context average just about always means the mean/simple average, never median or mode.

Whenever median is used for the 'average' it is stated as such (median income, median house prices etc)

Another interesting point is that of the, say, 500 CCs issued less than 100 have a limit of greater than $5,000. So that's really great going if they can average $11,000!

well, that was pretty much what made the numbers smell bad to me.

DS248

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Reply # 307307 15-Mar-2010 10:03

bazzer: ... Perhaps by "average" they are referring to the median, not the mean? ...

So how does that help?

(At least 451 employees having a median expenditure of $11,000 pm = at least ... pm?)