MOST companies are wasting their money on PR pictures because what gets sent out is not up to scratch.

That's the view of Simon Apps, a Swindon freelance photographer who set up Pixmedia last year. Pixmedia is an online picture storage and distribution service which has several big clients including Nationwide.

Mr Apps, who surveyed picture editors working in various media across the country, said the majority were unhappy with pictures submitted by both inhouse PR staff and agencies.

"When you turn up a figure showing 80 per cent of the PR industry is wasting clients' money, it doesn't mean they don't care," he said.

"It surely means they don't recognise how big the problem has become.

"With so much at stake, it's a shame that most of the stuff that lands on a picture editor's desk these days just ends up in the bin."

Mr Apps said on average picture editors find only one in four pictures sent in to media outlets is deemed good enough to use.

And many pictures, even if composed well, are sent across in the wrong format, too small to use without quality declining, or with an incorrect or missing caption.