The standards are set by long-time annual report observer (and former corporate officer) Sid Cato, who created report-monitoring computer programs two decades ago. His selection of BellSouth, DTE and Tellabs, now among half a dozen exceptional early-arriving 2002 shareholder reports, is detailed in the April issue, No. 236 (monthly since September 1983), of his Newsletter on Annual Reports.

He said the Tellabs report achieved a score of 135 points, along with an equally perfect 100% Cato Positive Index, based on inclusion of all three dozen elements Cato promulgates as "essential to a successful annual report."

They range from extensive financial disclosure to complete honesty by a company's chief executive officer to a book that says "open me, read me—that is, possessing various readability enhancements, beginning with an aggressive cover."