About
Margin of Error is an independent publication about the numbers in the news. It takes one claim made with a number — a rate case, a poll, a study, a budget, an outcome report — and explains what the number actually measures, who it affects, and what it leaves out. Pieces publish when the reporting is ready rather than on a schedule.
It is written by Vivek H. Patil, author of Margin of Error: Statistics for a World That Needs Better Decisions. The books, apps, and teaching tools live at marginoferrormedia.com; more about the author at patilv.com.
The beat is a method, not a topic
We cover business, culture, society, and economics, because the beat was never a subject area. It is the arithmetic. Two tracks:
Regional — original reporting. Inland Northwest stories where nobody else is doing the arithmetic: utility filings, school district data, county budgets, nonprofit outcome claims, public health figures.
National and international — the second look. Not what happened. What the number in the headline actually measures. Published a few days behind the news cycle, on purpose.
Standing commitments
- Free to read, with the sources shown. Every piece links the primary documents and data behind its numbers, and URLs are permanent — an instructor can build a syllabus on a link without worrying it will move or disappear.
- Every figure is placed against a second figure that gives it scale. No number appears alone.
- Every jargon term is defined the first time it appears.
- Pieces close on a question, not a conclusion. The reader does the judging.
- A modeled distribution is labeled as modeled. Never presented as observation.
- Corrections are governed by the corrections policy. How we use AI is stated in the disclosure.
Citing this work
Every piece carries a suggested citation and a stable, permanent URL. Assign it, quote it, check it. Readers of every kind are welcome on the mailing list — journalists, officials, researchers, students, and anyone who reads a bill or a headline and wants the arithmetic behind it.
In the classroom
If you teach and would like to use a piece as a case study — statistics, economics, journalism, public policy — reach out at patilv@gmail.com. I’m glad to help adapt the material.
Contact
Margin of Error Media, LLC · patilv@gmail.com