Annual report activist Sid Cato doesn’t think so.

In the August issue of his long-running (since September 1983) annual report newsletter, Cato denigrated David Robinson, a "lecturer on marketing," as "an educator. A theoretician, pure and simple."

Robinson wrote (in the Sunday New York Times) "Get ready to shed a tear at the passing" of the print version of the annual report to shareholders. First annual, by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., was produced more than a century-and-a-quarter ago. Robinson said the document’s "usefulness is ended"—in Cato’s words, "because he says he doesn’t make investment decisions based on the print piece."

That, said Cato, in his Issue No. 180, concluding 15 years of publication, "hardly qualifies him as an expert on corporate communications."

Cato said he’s "convinced the print version of the annual report is an integral part of a company’s arsenal, and will remain so. Studies indicate clearly that analysts are influenced by the key corporate communiqué, that they do take its appearance and content into consideration when making investment recommendations."

"The annual report dead—R.I.P.? I don’t think so!" declared Cato.