"Rather than fixating on page numbers, businesses should rethink how and where they communicate their story, making strategic use of both print and digital platforms."
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The most common question we hear as corporate communication consultants is: “How can we reduce the page count of the annual report?”
With new regulations, shifting stakeholder expectations, and an increasingly digital landscape, companies are looking for ways to streamline their reports – eliminating unnecessary content while ensuring key messages remain clear and impactful.
But reducing page count is not just about cutting pages; it’s about refining your story. The true challenge lies in distilling complex narratives into a focused, engaging and strategically structured report that enhances stakeholder understanding.
This shift ties directly into the Renaissance of Reporting – a movement away from bloated, compliance-driven documents toward digital-first, audience-led corporate storytelling.
Rather than fixating on page numbers, businesses should rethink how and where they communicate their story, making strategic use of both print and digital platforms.
Here’s how companies can rethink their approach and reduce report length without sacrificing impact.
Too often, annual reports are built using a copy-paste approach from previous years, leading to redundancy and missed opportunities.
How to rethink structure
- Start fresh: what story are we trying to communicate? Rather than rigidly following last year’s structure or generic best practices, create a bespoke page plan that supports the narrative of your report.
- Intentional pagination: design the report to flow like a story, ensuring each section builds on the next, ensuring content is working in harmony to tell a cohesive story about your performance, strategy and vision.
- Investor deck thinking: apply the same clarity and conciseness that goes into an investor presentation – only include what’s essential. So much thought goes into the content and structure of investor decks; use a similar structure to the annual report and worry less about following a “best practice” structure, the layout of the story should be tailored solely to your business.
At the heart of a streamlined annual report is a sharp focus on materiality. What do your stakeholders truly need to know? Identifying and prioritising the most relevant information eliminates unnecessary content and sharpens your message.
How to apply this in practice
- Eliminate non-essential background information: if your primary audience is institutional investors who already have a deep understanding of your business, you can afford to streamline or even get rid of sections like "At a Glance" or explanations of your products and services. Instead, direct readers to your investor relations or corporate website for this information.
- Prioritise your equity story: focus on messaging that directly supports your business strategy and investor decision making.
Digital-first reporting is not just the future – it’s the present. Leveraging digital platforms allows companies to house supplementary content online, reserving the core report for what truly matters.
Ways to shift to digital-first
- Move lengthy sections online: case studies, sustainability policies and detailed methodologies are best housed digitally, with hyperlinks guiding readers.
- QR codes aren’t dead yet: whilst the print report still exists, companies will need to utilise hyperlinks and QR codes to guide readers to this digital content.
- Interactive features are here: however, we are seeing developments in PDF technology which mean moving images, video and interactive infographics and charts can be integrated into the report. We suggest seizing these innovations, with both hands to ensure an effective and concise report.
Quick wins for immediate impact
If you need to reduce page count without a full overhaul, start with these quick wins:
- Cut repetition: conduct a content audit to identify and remove any duplication within the report. Pay close attention to leadership statements, which may unintentionally echo one another, and cross-check culture and people-related reporting against the sustainability report to ensure consistency without duplication. Use page drivers to link readers to related content, avoiding unnecessary repetition.
- Use visuals wisely: replace long paragraphs with infographics, charts and tables to communicate insights more effectively. This approach is especially beneficial for sections like the market review, risk management and the governance report, reducing text density and highlighting key information.
Key sections to streamline
- At a glance: simplify this section to truly deliver key information "at a glance". Avoid lengthy descriptions and focus on succinctly summarising your company.
- Investment case: increasingly, companies are moving the investment case to their website. If this section doesn’t provide unique insights or stays the same year on year consider omitting it altogether.
- Stakeholder engagement: with the emphasis on outcome-based reporting (as per the updated UK Corporate Governance Code), focus on the actions and outcomes of engagement rather than the methods, which often remain consistent year-on-year.
- Sustainability: with the recent influx of sustainability-related regulations, this section of the report has significantly increased in size. CSRD alone has added on average 66 pages to reports and in some cases can be as much as 186. To counteract this, focus on your sustainability strategy and progress towards goals, and move policies, case studies and detailed narratives to the website or to a separate sustainability report. Check out our latest whitepaper, The Sustainability Report is Dead, for our insights on the future of sustainability reporting.
Case study
Streamlining Vanquis Banking Group’s Annual Report 2023 (44-page reduction)
From the offset, the goal was clear: reduce the page count as much as possible. With this in mind, we conducted a thorough content audit, identifying areas to condense, cut or streamline.
Key changes included condensing the “At a Glance” section from three pages to a single, visually engaging summary by refining content on services and customer needs. Strategic use of infographics also helped to trim the report. Only infographics that added value were retained, resulting in the removal of four redundant visuals.
Despite the push for a page reduction, we prioritised content that reinforced Vanquis’s equity story, retaining three full-page customer case studies to highlight the company’s customer focus.
The result?
A 44-page reduction, delivering a more concise, engaging and effective report.
Conclusion: a balanced approach
Cutting page count isn’t about cutting content – it’s about refining your corporate story.
By focusing on materiality, rethinking structure and embracing digital-first reporting, companies can deliver reports that are leaner, more engaging and more effective at communicating value to stakeholders.
Need guidance on streamlining your report?
Our experts can help you audit your content and reshape your approach – creating reports that are not just shorter, but smarter.