What should I do with photos accompanying my press release?

Question

I'm writing one for the first time. I've got the press release bit done and formatted correctly, but I'm unsure what to do with the photos. I read that the caption needs to be in the IPTC field - what is this and how do I do it?!

The photos were done by a professional photographer, and are higher resolution than usual as they also need printing in large size. The largest is 3732 x 2672 pixels, 8.63 MB. All are jpeg images. I'll struggle to get them all on one email (there are three in total). Should i just send two? Or should I resize them / compress them?

I'd really appreciate advice from someone who deals with this type of thing regularly. Thanks!

Answer 1

Youngboy1606's advice is good.  Generally speaking, we've found that publications will ask for a photograph and give you the specification for it when they're interested in your release.  Anything that arrives with an attachment is usually ignored.

Make sure your press release is actually newsworthy and the sort of story that the publications you're sending it to will want to publish.  Does it fit in with their style?  There's no one-size-fits-all for press releases.  Each one needs to be tailored to the publication.

Editors receive these things all the time and unless you hit the spot with them, you won't stand a chance of being published.  Make sure it's clear in your press release what the benefit is to the publication's readership.  That's what helps swing it with the editors.  If it adds to the information that their publication gives them or there's a special offer for their readers (even that doesn't always work) or you're writing about something innovative that will be useful to their readership, you may have a chance.

Good luck!

Answer 2

First zipping photos. Compression like zip is ineffective in for all practical purposes reducing the size of photos. JPG is a compressed format for one and the algorithm for zip is not conducive to how a picture file is stored.

Now the press release.

If you are planning on emailing these out to a mass audience I would not include any pictures unless they request it. In fact, if this is by email make sure you are doing this in a TXT email as opposed to HTML. You will have a higher degree of results because many email programs will simply strip pictures or flag emails as junk mail.

Personally I wish you well. I'm sure whatever it is you want published is exciting to you. I will tell you these things clog my email box all the time and I simply delete them. I could start a magazine every month with the amount of these things I get.

If this is a targeted email from someone who has requested it from a publication then as the other person suggested contact the graphic designer at the publication to find out what they want.

My guess is on photos 300 DPI and the larger the better. On the written portion, they prob want a Word document.

Good luck.

Answer 3

zip/ftp files always come in handy for this. i suggest contacting the publication's art director and asking him which method he prefers.

<a href = "http://www.controlledvocabulary.com/ima... click here </a> to read more about IPTC.

i would likely just ask the art director on the phone though what he prefers.

Answer 4

I'd recommend to reduce the image down to thumbnail size (about 30kb) otherwise it will get bounced by email. Give your contact  details so that they can request a full size image for print purposes (they probably wont want the jpeg format anyway).