One of the casualties of this year’s budget cuts was a free Financial Standards survey. To save money, we charged members $250 to participate. So we were relieved to learn that 45 papers still participated this year despite the fee. That’s less than the 65 to 70 papers we had grown accustomed to, but the decline was less than we expected.

It goes without saying that we hope to have the financial wherewithal to make Financial Standards a free service again next year.