Fast question for the publicists and PR gurus in the board.
I’m having an event in a couple of weeks that might be worthy of press coverage. I’m sending out a handful of press releases the old fashioned way – by fax, mail or messenger.
I want to include a couple of images that the publications can run. In the old days you’d include a glossy 8x10 or two. What are the acceptable methods these days that a low-tech guy like me can use? I know that most people in this situation enclose a photo CD and/or make downloadable images available on a website, but I don’t have a CD burner or a website.
Can I enclose a floppy instead of a CD (or will that be laughed at)?
Can I direct the editors to a free photo-hosting site? (I’m pretty new to those sites. Do they even accept hi-res images [300 ppi], and do they permit copying/downloading?) If that is a viable way to go, is there a hosting site that you suggest?
Every newspaper I’ve ever dealt with has a scanner somewhere. They’ll take your photo (I prefer 5x7 myself) and scan it.
That’s probably a better solution than trying to put a jpg on a floppy only to discover it’s too low-res for that particular publication.
Whatever you do, DO NOT attach the photo and email the news release. A lot of media outlets automatically filter out attachments from unknown sources, and some reject the email entirely.
However, your idea of including an actual photographic print is a hassle and expense that, frankly, I don’t want to deal with. The images I intend to use exist only as digital files or, in one case, as an 8x10 print (that I can scan). It would be so much easier for me to distribute them as jpegs.
And gee, a 300ppi 5"x7" jpeg should be high enough res for any newspaper (unless they intend to blow them up a whole lot, of course – but that’s a very unlikely possibility given the nature of my event).
I think everyone can pull a picture off the web by now. I attach them in emails all the time.
A quick free hosting site is http://tinypic.com/ The word Tiny refers to the small link name, not the picture size.
I couldn’t find out what their max size is, but just try them and see. They seem connected to http://photobucket.com/ which gives you Max image size 512 KB.
Don’t go with places like Yahoo Briefcase that require people to submit passwords, they won’t do that.
If you do that, print a hardcopy to send with your snailmail, and write over it in pen the name of the link, in such a way that they aren’t just tempted to just scan in the crappy printout.
When I say I attach them to email, what I really mean is I give the tinypic link in the email.
To attach the actual picture might get your message blocked from even being delivered, due to recipient’s size resrictions.