End of an era? What's up with the annual report to shareholders? You tell me. Back among 1988 reports, I reviewed in depth 867 of the year's documents. A year later, the number had fallen to 757—just over 100 fewer year to year. Up a bit among 1992s—to 791 reports. So far this time around? I've received a meager 153 from around the world. Which is why I issued a newsletter dated July and August 2003—I had too few from which to garner tidbits, good or bad, for publication. Credit the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which opened the door for companies to play fast and loose with the key corporate communiqué. As if they needed an excuse. Leaving only a handful of decent, upright corporations to hold down the fort. To truly care about their annual report. Even then, some producers confided they don't know "how long we can hold on." Managements determined to do away with the document, save perhaps a brief letter and the legalistic Form 10-K, which never was intended as other than a legalistically required filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 10-K never was intended for "popular consumption." Companies, the sleazy ones, at least, got a foot in the door with SOx, and they're making the most of it. Question is whether they'll succeed in deep-sixing a full-bodied print piece that communicates a company's substance, what distinguishes it from the riffraff. What singles it out as one you'd want to invest in, to work for. It's sad that, 179 years since the very first annual, it's literally on its death bed. What's needed, here, is a miracle.

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