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Signs are emerging that printed non-financial reports are making a
comeback after a period of company experimentation with web-only
publication.
GlaxoSmithKline, BT and Hewlett Packard are among companies to have revised their publication strategies, drawing back from web-only reporting to produce a printed version. GSK and BT both now produce short printed summary reports, while HP is creating a brief ‘customer report’ summarizing information it provides online.
Roger Cowe, a director of the UK-based Context consultancy, which draws up non-financial reports for several multinationals, said that after an initial rush to html- and pdf-only publishing, many businesses have realized the benefits of a print version.
‘Web-based reporting was a bit of a blind alley for many companies,’ he said. ‘Every company has to think about its own needs, so there isn’t a model which applies across the board. But everyone needs something in print – to hand out, to send out or to leave with people.’ Cowe said this was true even of online reports, which readers often wanted to print out. ‘The web is great for background material, but online documents seem best as pdf,’ he said. ‘If people are going to print something out, best to design it so it works in print.’
At a feedback session on Nationwide Building Society’s corporate responsibility report last month, most stakeholders said they had printed out the document in preference to reading it on screen. Mike Tuffrey, director of the Corporate Citizenship Company, which ran the session, said companies were finding ‘real limitations’ to the online-only approach. ‘Web sites are great for giving detailed information to multiple specialist audiences anywhere in the world. But without a content printout, you can’t easily discuss reports in meetings. Many of our clients are now producing short printed documents with a summary or highlights, as well as a longer pdf. The difficulty is deciding what to include, as the range of audiences is wide.’
Andrew Taylor, Ford Motor Company’s corporate citizenship director, told EP his organization had opted for a printed document every two years. ‘We decided to have online reporting on a continuous basis but recognize that we can’t just report on the web,’ he said. ‘NGOs will analyse our online stuff to death, but politicians, for instance, tend not to look at anything on the internet, so it makes sense to have a slimmed-down printed document every two years that we hand out to relevant people.’
Cowe said his ideal would be ‘a brief web report with background material for those who really want to delve, a longish pdf and a short printed document’.
GlaxoSmithKline, BT and Hewlett Packard are among companies to have revised their publication strategies, drawing back from web-only reporting to produce a printed version. GSK and BT both now produce short printed summary reports, while HP is creating a brief ‘customer report’ summarizing information it provides online.
Roger Cowe, a director of the UK-based Context consultancy, which draws up non-financial reports for several multinationals, said that after an initial rush to html- and pdf-only publishing, many businesses have realized the benefits of a print version.
‘Web-based reporting was a bit of a blind alley for many companies,’ he said. ‘Every company has to think about its own needs, so there isn’t a model which applies across the board. But everyone needs something in print – to hand out, to send out or to leave with people.’ Cowe said this was true even of online reports, which readers often wanted to print out. ‘The web is great for background material, but online documents seem best as pdf,’ he said. ‘If people are going to print something out, best to design it so it works in print.’
At a feedback session on Nationwide Building Society’s corporate responsibility report last month, most stakeholders said they had printed out the document in preference to reading it on screen. Mike Tuffrey, director of the Corporate Citizenship Company, which ran the session, said companies were finding ‘real limitations’ to the online-only approach. ‘Web sites are great for giving detailed information to multiple specialist audiences anywhere in the world. But without a content printout, you can’t easily discuss reports in meetings. Many of our clients are now producing short printed documents with a summary or highlights, as well as a longer pdf. The difficulty is deciding what to include, as the range of audiences is wide.’
Andrew Taylor, Ford Motor Company’s corporate citizenship director, told EP his organization had opted for a printed document every two years. ‘We decided to have online reporting on a continuous basis but recognize that we can’t just report on the web,’ he said. ‘NGOs will analyse our online stuff to death, but politicians, for instance, tend not to look at anything on the internet, so it makes sense to have a slimmed-down printed document every two years that we hand out to relevant people.’
Cowe said his ideal would be ‘a brief web report with background material for those who really want to delve, a longish pdf and a short printed document’.
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