[Smoothie]

STEP 2;
Open member.php file (located in /forum folder) and perform the code change listed below.
FIND:
$avatars=$DB_site->query("SELECT *
REPLACE WITH:
if (in_array($bbuserinfo['usergroupid'], array(6, $articlegroup))) {
$avatars=$DB_site->query("SELECT *
FIND:
$pagenav = getpagenav($totalavatars,"member.php?s=$session[sessionhash]&action=editavatar&perpage=$perpage");
REPLACE WITH:
$pagenav = getpagenav($totalavatars,"member.php?s=$session[sessionhash]&action=editavatar&perpage=$perpage");
}

STEP 5;
Open modifyavatar template (located in User Option Templates section) and perform the code change listed below.
FIND:
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#13486D" align="center" colspan="2">
<normalfont><b>Choose your avatar from the available list:</b></normalfont></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#1C5780" colspan="2" align="center">
<table bgcolor="#0A293E" border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="10">
$avatarlist
</table>
<normalfont>Displaying Avatars $limitlower to $limitupper of $totalavatars<br>$pagenav</normalfont>
</td>
</tr>
REPLACE WITH:
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#1C5780" colspan="2" align="center">
<table bgcolor="#0A293E" border="0" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="10">
$avatarlist
<normalfont>$pagenav</normalfont></table>
</td>
</tr>

STEP 8;
Still in your vBulletin Admin Control Panel, set your journalist avatars URL to your full website URL, like that:
Avatars > Modify > [edit]

and change the Path to image to the full URL, instead of your current value, images.
Example: http://www.yoursite.com/forum/images...journalist.gif

The default avatars will be from now your staff images. I recommend you to use pictures. They will work the same way like normal avatars, with the exception that they will be viewed only by your staff. The rest of members will be able to upload their own custom avatars, as usual.

If you don't want to allow avatars uploads, simply disable the Upload Avatar option, in Avatars section of
your Admin Control Panel.

JOURNALISTS GROUP
Enter here the usergroup ID value you generated in step 9. vBulletin uses 2 types of avatar groups, default and custom
(user uploaded). 99.99% of the cases, the default group is not used.
vbHome (lite) will use this group to store your journalists pictures or avatars.

The way are set the code changes, it will enable this default group of avatars to be viewed only by administrators and members who belong onto Journalists group. So if you have avatars enabled on your site, a normal user who wants to add his(her) avatar will not see the images.