Journalists call news pictures art. Not art in the sense of museum pieces, but communication art. Good news photographers think through their pictures before they shoot, and they take their work very seriously. Publicists, unfortunately, usually give pictures short shrift.

As Larry Kramer of the Trenton Times points out, "art from businesses is notoriously bad. So a good business item with an interesting handout picture stands a better chance of making it. And there are stories that make page one because there was art with them."

The same is true for art from nonprofit organizations, trade associations, and government agencies. The photo editor quoted above amplifies on this: "Publicity photos we get are staid and unimaginative. That's why they seldom get in the paper. Ninety-nine percent of the photographers who take publicity photos have not had newspaper experience and don't know what we want. We want good action photos. Since publicity photos are often advance shots of things happening in the future, there's nothing going on in them. They're posed pictures of people doing nothing."

To learn what publicity photos not to send, as well as which ones will get you published see David R. Yale's "How To Get Publicity Photos In Newspapers, Magazines, And On TV"