It’s annual report season and that means the massive presses at Lithographix Inc. in Hawthorne are humming 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Even at 3 a.m., corporate types are lined up, waiting frantically to approve pages as they are pulled off the presses. But this year, the season, which stretches from mid-February through April, seems slightly less hectic.

That’s because many companies are skipping the bells and whistles of the annual report. Rather than spend a few hundred thousand dollars creating a glossy corporate advertisement for shareholders and clients, some public companies prefer to just post their financial results on the Internet.

“At one time, the annual report was a company’s pride and joy,” said Herb Zebrack, 72, president of Lithographix, one of the largest privately held commercial printing firms in the U.S. It has $120 million in sales and 450 employees.

Lithographix prints 70 to 80 annual reports a year, down from more than 100 a few years ago. Clients include Exxon Mobil Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., Southern California Edison and Gap Inc.

Zebrack says consolidation among Fortune 1,000 companies and an obsession with costs have further cut into the annual report market. More often, firms are printing their financial statements, adding a color-wrap cover and skipping the added costs.

“A lot of our clients are being asked to do much more with smaller budgets and less people,” he said.

Annual reports now make up a small portion of Lithographix’s overall business.

The company just bought an 81-inch press one of the largest in the world to print billboard advertisements and movie posters. Lithographix also does a brisk business in car brochures for Chrysler Corp. and foreign automakers.

Annual reports can take up to six months to design and produce, presenting a challenge for many companies, said Gary Baker, president and executive creative director at Baker Brand Communications, a consulting firm in Santa Monica.

“It’s a very important document but it can be a difficult internal challenge,” he said.

Though some companies assign the annual reports to their public relations or communications departments, the process can seem overwhelming. Designers, photo editors, stylists and brand specialists all play a role in creating some annual reports, most of them with themes or tag lines that try to convey a positive corporate message.

“Everyone needs a theme to keep the reader engaged, Baker said. “You need a hook, a thematic starting point.”

Baker said that it has to be believable, though.

“I can’t tell a good story about a failing company.”