Coping with annual reports on the web
A turn off
What is it about annual reports that turns off so many people, shareholders and non-shareholders alike?
'Any I'm sent go straight in the bin,' groans one investor — to a chorus of agreement around the room.
The scene is a training course on writing for the web, attended by eight professional communicators. As tutor, I've passed round a selection of recently published reports, front covers and photos gleaming. But, despite the demands of their jobs and their private interests, no one really wants to open them.
We discuss various survey findings. That shareholders spend on average about three and a half minutes 'reading' a printed annual report. That the more money they've invested, the more time they'll put in. And that their order of interest is normally the cover, followed by financial highlights and the chairman's message, and then photos and captions.
Analysts, of course, are looking for scrupulous detail. Yet one aspect they consider essential, according to the US Financial Analysts Federation, is that the company is truly attempting to tell its story to the average shareholder. This helps them when making recommendations.
But, in this group, enthusiasm for annual reports is still lacking. So, moving on to web publishing generally, I hand out a box of chocolates...
Next: The chocolate analogy
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