Energy Companies Should Provide Images to Journalists/Bloggers

I have been writing and editing energy news for over 3 years. During my career as an energy writer, I have noticed that there are few energy companies, like China-based photovoltaic (PV) producer Trina Solar, that upload the company’s logo and photos on their Website for use in news and blogs by online journalists and blogger.

Images became a main part of a news story these days. News writers and bloggers seek images for their stories, reports and blogs. To find images, they start search from the company’s Website and, in case of energy companies, the success rate is 40%. It means that there is 40% chance that you will get related images from the company’s Website for your news or blogs.

Here I want to give an example. A company announced hiring of a new chief executive officer (CEO). After doing a story on this, a reporter will now look for a photo of the newly-appointed CEO on the company’s site. If reporter finds an image of that person on the company’s site, it will be a lucky day for him/her. Most energy companies do not upload images of their executives and board of directors on thir site, which is a problem for journalists/bloggers.

I suggest that energy companies should upload their logo images, projects images, products images and office photos on their Websites for journalists and bloggers. This will not only give journalists a chance to make their stories attractive, but it will be an in-direct advertisement of the company.

Companies pay a lot of money for advertisement, which includes images. Journalists/bloggers are doing this job free of cost. Why do not send an image along with press releases/announcement? I think all energy companies should think about it.

This is not a big job. PR/Media Relation Department can do this job easily. I will again quote example of Trina Solar, which is doing this job very easily.

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