Finance stories are rough on reporters, unless you're an Andrew Ross Sorkin, and you are probably not. Few people, if anyone, can actually read a city's full budget. (I tried to read New York City's latest. It was deathly! Longer than Infinite Jest!) And when an exciting thing like a comptroller report on economic health comes along, well, that just does not make for fun deadline reading. And so the next-day news stories may vary quite a bit!

Says the New York Times:

The growth of New York City's economy slowed to a crawl at the start of this year, falling below the national growth rate after exceeding it for most of the last two years, according to a report released on Thursday by the city comptroller.

The city's total output, known as the gross city product, increased by 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2008, slower than the 1 percent growth in the gross domestic product, the comptroller's report showed.

Says the New York Sun:

New data show the New York metropolitan area is the largest contributor to America's gross domestic product, but its position at the top of the national ranking may be due more to the inclusion of neighboring economic powerhouses such as Greenwich and Stamford, Conn., than its own economic strength.

New York City actually is responsible for less than half of all economic activity in its own metropolitan area, the data show. According to the city comptroller's office, its economic activity constitutes 43% of the region's total economy.

Neither of those takes appears in the others' story. We only wonder what Dissent would have made of it all.