CorpComms Magazine

1.Don't be a nuisance

Call picture desks at convenient times. In this respect, you should treat picture editors the same way you would treat journalists. If it's a daily newspaper, for example, phone after the morning conference at 10.30 am to 11 am but before the afternoon rush. Be polite and always respect deadlines, and if you miss a call from a journalist or picture desk, call back within 30 minutes.

2.Delegate, delegate, delegate

Give someone in the press office responsibility for organising pictures. It doesn't have to be their whole job, but I think it should be part of someone's job. It is important to have someone whose responsibility it is to get photos for each story taken to a wide range of briefs to suit lots of different publications. The marketing department may muscle in on the story, so your press officer needs to get time with the photographer too.

3.Use a specialist

Picture desks have very exact requirements if you are supplying the pictures. You can spend a lot of time making sure the pictures are the right brief, the right quality and the right resolution, but then discover that the organisation you're dealing with has firewalls that won't allow you to e-mail them through. A specialist can take care of all this. Visual Media, headed up by ex-picture editor Scott Shillum, helps us with ideas, taking pictures and ensuring they are delivered in the format the picture desks want. An organisation like Visual Media also has credibility - picture desks know the pictures they send will be the correct format, of high quality and suited to the brief.

4.Set up a photo library

The global media will often want a picture outside of UK office hours - a high-quality online photo library that is easy to navigate and download from provides the solution. We use Visual Media for this and print the web address ofthe picture library on press releases. In March this year, InterContinental announced a major deal in China with pictures of the world's tallest hotel in Nanjing. It made the front page of the Toronto Post. The Post took the pictures from our photo library and we didn't even know it was happening. It was a picture caption story, so if we hadn't had the picture library, the story wouldn't have appeared. We have seen a large increase in the number of our photos used in the media since we started using a picture library.

5.Display web addresses

Always put a web address link to your online photo library in block capitals at the end of each news release you produce, and make sure you provide very clear instructions on how to use it. This can save a lot of time directing picture desks to where they need to be.

6.Be creative when appropriate

Publications want pictures that fulfil their brief, not yours. You often get the marketing guys saying how a photo should look, but really you should examine what the papers actually print. Dailies, for example, might want a picture of the chief executive against an interesting background, or with something else in shot to grab the reader's attention. A classic mistake is to put the company's logo in the picture behind the chief executive. Very few newspapers will print that - after all, they are not in the business of giving out free advertising.

7.Get the technicals right

High-resolution images are a necessity - do not waste time and tease picture desks with good pictures that are not of sufficient quality to print. Quality, glossy magazines need the highest-resolution pictures, whereas web sites only need low-res pictures.

8.Tailor your images

Different publications have different photographic needs. If you are publicising your new web site, for example, you might send four or five screen grabs to trade publications, which will require technical images. Papers like the Times or Financial Times wouldn't use these, however - they want simple pictures of the CEO. You need to know what each publication's brief is and cater to it.

9.Don't leave it to the journalist to brief the picture desk

Picture desks are very different to editorial. Speak to them separately, but always find out the name of the journalist covering your story so you can let the picture desk know.

10.Don't pretend to have all the answers

If you are speaking to a picture desk, don't muddle through when you don't know if you have a picture or not. Make sure you always know what the situation is on the picture front.

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