Landing Earned Media’s a Snap with Great Images
The media won’t always be able to cover your organization’s event or happening. Sometimes they might lack the staff, have competing priorities that day, or in the case of some hyper-local newspapers, simply don’t generate their own content, relying instead on submitted material like yours.
Whatever the reason, your photo and messages can still find placement if you can provide a great photo after the fact. Unfortunately, many clients and organizations don’t plan for this, and as a result, the photography comes up well short of what newspapers are looking for.
Best Practice Makes Perfect
The are plenty of resources and tips for great photography just a click or two away, so we’re not going to get into the basics of great image-making here, but there are some things your front-line event people, social media staff, public relations personnel and franchise offices or ambulatory care centers should keep in mind to elevate their results, and increase the chances of landing a photo in the local paper.
High-Resolution Rules. Print publications need images to be 200 x 200 ppi at the bare minimum in order to reproduce sharply, but higher is preferable. High-resolution is a minimum of 600 x 600 dpi. Make sure whoever is shooting photos has their camera set to the highest resolution setting. This can’t be overstated.
Make Sure Your Camera’s Up to It. It used to be a hard-and-fast rule to avoid taking photos for press purposes with a cell phone, because the quality was usually poor. That’s changed with newer, more photo-friendly phones, so if you’ve got the goods, flaunt them. Of course, a digital SLR remains a great choice. Either one, in reasonably skilled hands, will get what you need. And be sure to send or upload the image at the highest resolution.
Go for an Interesting Element or Angle. Try to capture people doing something active or expressing emotion whenever possible. But even cliché photos such as check or award presentations can be made more compelling with a great background, an end-user beneficiary, or when shot from an unusual angle, or with a wide-angle lens. Look for color, such as flowers or shrubs or artwork, to add life to your photos too.
Focus on the Subject. Frame your photos to get in tight on the subject – whether it’s a physician or inanimate object such as a new medical imaging machine. The fewer walls, ceiling tiles or electrical outlets in the photo, the better.
Identify. A great photo is virtually useless to a newspaper if you don’t have the names and affiliations of every person prominently featured. This isn’t necessary for everyone in a candid group shot, but those whose faces are easily identifiable should be identified. And get their home towns too, particularly if you’ll be submitting the photo to hyper-local publications.
Remember HIPAA. You’ll need to get a signed photo release from each person in the picture, possibly even staff, and be cautious to not include any sensitive medical information in the image or caption if a patient doesn’t provide consent. A patient undergoing a specific procedure, for example, or being treated by a particular doctor or even in a specific room could provide health information they’d prefer to keep private.
Strike Fast. Newspapers want news, so send your photos as soon as possible. This might mean while the event is unfolding, but certainly the same day or within 24 hours. Weekly papers generally have more flexibility, but check their deadlines so you can get them photos for the next edition when possible.
Avoid Large Attachments. You’ve got a great picture, in high-resolution, but many journalists are wary of opening attachments, or have servers that will slow them down or reject them entirely. Unless you’ve made prior arrangements to send a large file, upload your images to Dropbox or a similar site, or a proprietary file-sharing platform if you have one (SPRYTE's is called Docco), and provide a link to download instead. As a bonus, you’ll often be able to see whether said file has been downloaded, and possibly by whom.
Not every photo you send to newspapers will be used in print or online, but you can stack the deck in your favor by giving editors what they need, in the form they want, in a timely manner.
