 especially the CEO. According to a 2001 study by public relations agency Burson- Marsteller,8 more than 90 percent of professional investors say that they are more likely to recommend or buy a stock based on the CEO's reputation, up from 70 percent five years before. In fact, when AT&T appointed John Walter its next CEO, AT&T's market cap went down by about $4 billion in a matter of hours. Conversely, on the day Arm- strong's appointment was announced, confirming weeks of specula- tion, AT&T added about $4 billion to its market cap. Finally, it's easier to tell stories by focusing on the actors rather than on the complicated backstage mechanics. And make no mistake, the business media trade in stories. Part of this is old-fashioned sales- manship. As Forbes managing editor, Dennis Kneale, told me, "In this day and age, no one wants to read anything. So you have to trick them into reading. For example, if you want to do a story about derivatives, you find someone who claims to be the king of derivatives based on some algorithm he invented. You do the story about him, explain the algorithm and fool people into reading it." Like any good storyteller, Kneale and his counterparts at the other business magazines look for what he calls "conflict, drama, and setbacks." "Business news does not have to be negative," he says, "but there has to be conflict. Business is rife with conflict and struggle; we don't have to manufacture it." Don't Dance to the Music of Your Own Buzz The media also have help finding it. "Many times," Kneale says, "our best source is someone's competitor. We get them to tell us something about you, then we go to you to deny or confirm it and tell us something about them. It's a twofer." "Very occasionally," he says, "we're spoon-fed a scoop, but that's not the point-the real goal is to unearth the conflict or drama that is inherently interesting." And Kneale may have revealed the schaden- freude in the media's soul when he told a group of PR people-with a sly wink-that he especially appreciates "mea