Investor Relations Services -- Annual Reports and Press Releases -Good Writing

ANNUAL REPORTS AND PRESS RELEASES -- GOOD WRITING

Writing Good Annual Reports.

In addition to reading the tips, try looking at an annual report from the reader's standpoint with IBM's "Guide to Reading an Annual Report".

Sid Cato, an annual report writer, offers a wealth of tips and articles.
Maloy Financial, an IR firm, gives tips on writing annual reports and financial writing in general.
Herring Design exerpt, from Jerry Herring's 1990 book "Annual Report Design". If they reorganize the site and the exerpt link disappears, try Their home page.
Tips for Writing an Annual Report from the Annual Report Library. If they reorganize their site and this page goes away, try looking on their home page
Information on Writing an Annual Report from Word-Space.
Guide to Reading an Annual Report from IBM.If they reorganize their site and this page goes away, try looking ontheir home page
There are many annual report competitions. You might look at the winners and order annual reports from them to study.
- Potlatch Paper. Along with their galleries for the year's competition, they post a summary of trends!
- Annual Report Competition from MerCommAwards. If they reorganize their site and this page goes away, try looking ontheir home page
- Look for the Annual Report Competition at theAssoc. of Publicly Traded Companies (APTC).
- NIRI. Use their search engine to find press releases announcing annual report competition winners.
Plain English Handbook: How to Create Clear SEC Disclosure Documents. This advice can also apply to writing for the general public.

In 2000, the Public Relations Society of America published a study showing that the public gave Highest Credibility Ratings to Corporate Annual Reports. ahead of journalism! If the magazine site reorganizes and the article disappears, here is a Text-Only Version in which the links probably no longer work.

In 2001, Merrill Lynch published a study showing that statistically the longer a 10K filing the lower the company's stock performance. ZDII published an article detailing the study called The bigger the annual report, the harder the fall. If the magazine site reorganizes and the article disappears, here is a Text-Only Version in which the links probably no longer work. Will this study cause companies to write shorter reports? Will this study cause companies to write shorter reports?

As of Spring 2002, it appears that due to Enron fallout annual reports are longer this year as companies try to cover all their bases.

Writing Good Press Releases

Using any of the search engines you can find a number of good articles on journalistic practices. We like Pertinent Information, below, because they address the new issue of e-mailing your releases.

Tips for Writing Press Releases from Pertinent Information. If they reorganize, or to find general small business advice go totheir home page
Gebbie Press is one of the sponsors of the Pertinent Info. Site. They have a comprehensive directory of media addresses for $90.00, available either in print or on disk. They estimate 50 to 100 magazines specifically in the banking, finance, investment, economics, etc. areas.
As mentioned above, Maloy Financial, an IR firm, gives tips on writing annual reports and financial writing in general.
PR Web offers articles on PR in general, including some on writing news releases and, especially, on crisis management -- a good subject for an IR person to be familiar with!
The Traditional Press Release Is Dead by B. L. Ochman. If she reorganizes go to the WhatsNextOnlne.com Home Page. --or if the article disappears totally, here is a text version in which the links will probably no longer work. This is a very good article which stresses the format and the brevity needed for releases to be read online.

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ANNUAL REPORTS AND PRESS RELEASES -- GOOD WRITING

Writing Good Annual Reports.

Writing Good Press Releases

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