there's a picture for every story

You've probably noticed that the lead item in every newspaper, magazine and television newscast has a picture with it. So if you want your story to get attention, you're going to have a much better chance if you supply a picture -- or give the news media ideas on how to find their own visuals.

These are just a few examples of stories where the right photo has made all the difference: an engineering rebuilding company, a system for detecting underground leaks in pipelines, a 401(k) plan, and Viagra.

We worked with Automotive Engineering, an engine rebuilding company that was celebrating its 40th anniversary. A story like that would typically be a two-paragraph story in a major metropolitan area such as San Francisco. But we noticed the sculptural forms of some of the scrap metal at Automotive Engineering. The solution to getting good press coverage was to donate scrap metal to local college sculpture classes, and have a competition. The competition ended up running for several years. Coverage– all with photographs of the sculpture – included a front page story in the Oakland Tribune, local news section page stories in the San Francisco Examiner and San Jose Mercury News, and evening news coverage on Channel 5.

Another example is Vista Research, which makes specialized equipment for detecting leaks in underground pipelines at airport fueling systems. A national publication, Aviation Week & Space Technology, was very interested in the story, but reluctant to use it without a photo. Because the particular publication is so important in the industry, we went to Anchorage, Alaska, to work with a photographer to get a suitable picture of installed equipment. The publication then selected Vista as one of 10 national winners of its Technology Innovation Awards. Without a photo, it’s questionable whether Vista would have been eligible for the award.

For an online 401(k) investment plan (truly difficult to photograph), we created graphs showing the increase in retirement plans and also supplied a photograph of the company's founder and a color logo.

For a computer security story, we had a photograph of the CEO looking at hundreds of pages of reports of unsuccessful attempts to break into a company test site. For television, we supplied an animated graphic showing how the security system was like watertight compartments on a ship – if one compartment broke, the others remained intact. The videotape also had footage of a "hacker" pounding on the keyboard. That ultimately appeared on CNN's international broadcasts. Could CNN have created that itself? Of course. But it was much easier to use our tape.

Perhaps the best example is Viagra -- which we assume everyone has heard of by now. But what sort of picture do you use with the story? The manufacturer solved both problems by supplying video and still photography of bottles of pills coming off the assembly line.

Photography also can be an important component of short stories, such as announcements of executive promotions. If you look in the business pages and you've ever wondered why some items have photos and others don't, it's probably because some companies supplied photos and others didn't. Supplying a photo doesn't guarantee that it will be used -- but a photo definitely can't be used if it's not there.

Distributing photos and graphics is much less expensive than it used to be, thanks to the Internet and digital technology. In the "old" days, it was necessary to print 100 or more copies of photos, and then pay for packaging them and mailing them. Today MCA Public Relations maintains a special Web site, www.givememore.com, which archives client photos. When we issue press releases, we include a note that a graphic element or photo is available on the Internet. We also include a sheet with a small printout of the artwork so editors will know whether the photos meet their needs without having to go online. Thanks to the Internet, if an editor wants a photo even at 10 p.m. on a Sunday evening for the Monday business section, it's instantly available.