COULD IT BE only a few short years ago that the telecom industry was all the rage? You wouldn't have known it from SBC Communications' recent annual reports, spartan-looking publications printed not on glossy paper but on garden-variety newsprint (albeit a heavier weight than what this magazine is printed on.)

Although the spareness of such presentations might be expected in such lean economic times as these, SBC actually switched from glossy to newsprint four years ago, when its stock was trading at a lofty $50 a share, far above the 21 and change of late.

The reasons, a spokesman says, are three: cost-consciousness; using the report strictly for information, not for marketing; and the availability of other frequent communications to shareholders, both on the Internet and in quarterly letters from the chairman, with detailed briefings.

Judging by some of the trends in the telecom company's business -- including a decline of about 6% in revenues in 2002 to $43.14 billion from the previous year -- the change to newsprint came not a moment too soon. Indeed, the SBC spokesman notes that the cost to publish an annual report on newsprint is considerably below his estimate of $5 to $8 a copy on the glossy, slick reports. (A cursory examination of reports found that Verizon's '02 report is also printed on newsprint; it has been saving investors -- at their request -- at least 75 cents a copy on annual-report printing costs all the way back to 1991, when it was known as Bell Atlantic.)

Still, while a switch to newsprint from glossy may be admirable for prudence's sake, style is never a substitute for substance. On that score, SBC's report may leave something to be desired, says Laura Rittenhouse, president of andBeyond Communications, an investor-relations consultant.

Rittenhouse says "it's a good sign" that SBC, which by its own reckoning is having rough times, isn't spending money frivolously on a glossy report. But she's concerned that the shareholder letter, in contrast to the '01 letter, fails to focus on profits, or to explain the lack of revenue growth in the so-called growth businesses.