January 21, 2011

Will online replace print?

It would seem that the Financial Reporting Council here in the

UK feels that it should. In fact, it's proposing permitting the publication

of the annual report in online format only, which I would imagine

is viewed by quite a number of people as fairly controversial.

Indeed, there has already been some anger expressed over the move.

In a recent article in the Financial Times the FRC was quoted as saying

that "by relieving companies of the burden of providing a printed annual

report on request it would enable them to focus on making their

web versions more user friendly and searchable."

I certainly agree with these ambitions, but I also feel that an online

only version could well create a real opportunity to provide the reader

with a much greater depth of content and information too.

It will be interesting to see what response the FRC gets to the proposal,

which is out to consultation until the end of March.

Do you think it's time to move to online only?

I don't normally ask what you feel, but on this occasion I think that

it would be really interesting if everybody shared their views.

Do you think online only would be better or worse, and why? Do you think

it doesn't matter in which format the annual report is presented?

Do you think it's inevitable, whatever anybody thinks?

If you want to take a look at the article, just click on the link below,

which will ask you to register first, but don't worry, it's free and

doesn't commit you to anything. It only takes a few seconds.

And let me know what you think about a topic that's set to provoke

strong reactions all over the world.

Reg Pauffley - Communicator