Purpose of publication

Public reports
In reports that are aimed at a wide audience, brevity is important, so information must be presented concisely and clearly.
Executive reports
These are usually internal reports about specific topics and may include advanced analyses and presentation if the readership is more technically sophisticated.
Archival and regular publications
Many organisations provide detailed data to the public. Such data are often published electronically. Data that are simply provided for others to analyse may be simply provided in spreadsheet format but presentation is important in 'Yearbooks' that are aimed at a wider audience.

Publication medium

All information used to be published in black and white on paper, but colour and electronic delivery are now more common. Colour in particular makes it much easier to present information clearly, especially in graphs.

Quality and resolution of medium
Colour print on glossy paper is best but expensive. Computer screens have relatively low resolution — much fewer 'dots' per unit area and this limits the type size of text and the detailed information that can be presented, especially if the screen is small.
Cost
Electronic publication on the internet is much cheaper than printing on paper, but this often results in poorly presented information. It is important that as much effort is put into effective communication of information on a web site as would occur on paper.
Format
Many reports are published on the internet as 'pdf' files. Although they are still limited by the screen resolution of the computer, it is possible to zoom in and to print them at much higher resolution.
Recent standards (HTML5 and CSS3) allow web pages to be formatted almost as flexibly as on paper.A web site can also be interactive, both for navigation around the site and for interacting with individual pages. (CAST itself is an example of what is possible.)
Archival data are often provided on the internet in spreadsheet format. Alternatively, a web site may dynamically extract and display information from a large behind-the-scenes database.

With computers and internet connections becoming more common, a well-designed web site is becoming a very powerful and flexible way to present information.

There is no perfect publication medium, but a well-designed web site should be considered.