Dividends: Stripping the Varnish

One of the important tools of corporate image making is the richly illustrated annual report. But some firms now regard the glossy booklets sent to stockholders as overly extravagant. Xerox has banished photographs from the pages of its report this year, thereby cutting the cost of each copy from 88¢ to 43¢. Total savings: $180,000. AMF, a New York-based conglomerate, after losing $1.5 million last year, cut its report by twelve pages and adopted a no-frills design. Much of A T & T's report is printed on paper almost as flimsy as the kind used in phone books. The company did away with most of the slick finish for its 4 million reports because it needed to include eight more pages, largely about the firm's breakup.

Some companies, though, continue to produce reports elegant enough to grace the finest coffee tables. The Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette investment firm, whose profits jumped 32% last year, issued a 64-page document filled with pictures of historical artifacts and featuring a painting of Alexander Hamilton on the cover. But Wisconsin Securities, a Milwaukee investment firm, went one better. Along with its 30-page report, the company sent each of its 235 shareholders a 10-oz. can of ginger cookies made by one of the companies in which it has invested.