Sid Cato -- September 2004 Quiz Answers

(Answers for September 2004)

1. Your September issue, which you say is your 253rd, remains—well, terribly serious. True or false?
Answer: Depends on what you see as "terribly serious." On Pg. 1 of my September newsletter, I recollect the premier pair—in September and October 1983. But I also talk about a four-page parody issue, put out at Halloween time, entitled "Kid Sato's Newslitter on Annual Reports." I still find it humorous, though of course humor is in the eye of the beholder.

2. Your newsletter is comprised essentially of a never-ending series of short takes; that is, items with precious little substance. True or false?
Answer: If it ever was true, it's not in the September issue—which devotes an entire page to one producer's stockholder poll, another entire page to my 19th annual poll of producers of the key corporate communique'. From pay to reporting relationships. Granted, some reviews—if not all—are mercifully brief, not warranting anything more substantive.

3. Thanks in no small part to your encouragement, more and more companies are using themes in their annual reports, which as I understand it, is what you advocate. True or false?
Answer: Yes, that's what I advocate. But, among 2003 books, only two in three annuals have a theme, declared on the cover. Among 2002 books, the peak participation in this advocacy, 73.2% of annuals proclaimed a theme on the report cover.

4. Okay. But at least there's a trend to use 11-year financial data, which you advocate as "necessary to calculate a 10-year compound growth rate." True or false?
Answer: True, that's my advocacy. False, that it's a trend—at least, not upward. Among 2003 books, one in seven—13.9%—included 11-year data. As far back as 1990 books, more than one in four—27%—used data for the longer period advocated.

5. You advocate end-use photographs—pictures of the product and/or service in use. Not just a gas station, but someone serving the consumer, either by pumping gas or washing a windshield, say. If true, the trend if in the wrong direction—downward, rather than improving. True or false?
Answer: Pretty much true. 45.1% this year run photos of the product and/or service in use. That contrasts with 64%—call it two out of three—when monitoring this element commenced, among 1982 and 1983 reports. (Exactly half that many—32%—among 1994s.)

6. If your publication's so hot, how come no one subscribes for long?
Answer: True that many don't last long—not just as subscribers, but in their jobs. Nancy A. Fuller, Addison's senior VP, though, has subscribed to my monthly newsletter since the very first issue, in September 1983. Brown-Forman's Linda A. Gering has renewed every year since 1995.

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	1.	Your September issue, which you say is your 253rd, remains—well, terribly serious. True or false? *Answer:* Depends on what you see as "terribly serious." On Pg. 1 of my September newsletter, I recollect the premier pair—in September and October 1983. But I also talk about a four-page parody issue, put out at Halloween time, entitled "Kid Sato's Newslitter on Annual Reports." I still find it humorous, though of course humor is in the eye of the beholder.

	2.	Your newsletter is comprised essentially of a never-ending series of short takes; that is, items with precious little substance. True or false? *Answer:* If it ever was true, it's not in the September issue—which devotes an entire page to one producer's stockholder poll, another entire page to my 19th annual poll of producers of the key corporate communique'. From pay to reporting relationships. Granted, some reviews—if not all—are mercifully brief, not warranting anything more substantive.

	3.	Thanks in no small part to your encouragement, more and more companies are using themes in their annual reports, which as I understand it, is what you advocate. True or false? *Answer:* Yes, that's what I advocate. But, among 2003 books, only two in three annuals have a theme, declared on the cover. Among 2002 books, the peak participation in this advocacy, 73.2% of annuals proclaimed a theme on the report cover.

	4.	Okay. But at least there's a trend to use 11-year financial data, which you advocate as "necessary to calculate a 10-year compound growth rate." True or false? *Answer:* True, that's my advocacy. False, that it's a trend—at least, not upward. Among 2003 books, one in seven—13.9%—included 11-year data. As far back as 1990 books, more than one in four—27%—used data for the longer period advocated.

	5.	You advocate end-use photographs—pictures of the product and/or service in use. Not just a gas station, but someone serving the consumer, either by pumping gas or washing a windshield, say. If true, the trend if in the wrong direction—downward, rather than improving. True or false? *Answer:* Pretty much true. 45.1% this year run photos of the product and/or service in use. That contrasts with 64%—call it two out of three—when monitoring this element commenced, among 1982 and 1983 reports. (Exactly half that many—32%—among 1994s.)

	6.	If your publication's so hot, how come no one subscribes for long? *Answer:* True that many don't last long—not just as subscribers, but in their jobs. Nancy A. Fuller, Addison's senior VP, though, has subscribed to my monthly newsletter since the very first issue, in September 1983. Brown-Forman's Linda A. Gering has renewed every year since 1995.