The Kring Group

We happened upon this ditty Karen Kring composed back in 2005.

“I spent a lot of time working on and writing about the media guide, so eventually rhymes presented themselves,” Karen says.

Back in the day Karen was the new media manager for the Community Media Workshop, now called Public Narrative. She didn’t just do web work. One of her responsibilities included supervising the updating and production of the media guide–now called Chicago Media Guide–and promoting it. It remains a reliable resource for connecting with journalists and news outlets and communicating strategically.

“It wasn’t unusual for people to contact us asking if we knew of such a comprehensive media guide in their town,” Karen says. “I’m still not aware of any.”

Subscriptions to the Chicago Media Guide are available for a year or a day.

Have you some news stories to pitch?

Try Marin, Mitchell,
White, or Helfrich

Porterfield, Grumman,
Washington, Sneed
Workshop’s got the data you need.

Ahern, Corley,
Anderson, Dumont
Contact all the reporters you want

Workin’ for outlets near and far
Times, Post,
Journal, Star

With data that’s
searchable
sortable
exportable
The CD’s price is quite affordable.

Just 99 bucks, we’ve got a book.
Order form’s below, take a look.

Order immediately, now’s the time.
According to Feder, a real gold mine.

This piece certainly reflects how things have changed on Chicago journalism landscape has changed, as well as the guide, which is all online now.

———————————————————-
Updated from article first posted July 2009.

Ramon DeLeon by Karen Kring

Karen has blogged about it before: Having a good portrait made of yourself is important no matter what profession you are in or ambitions you have.

First: You never know when the media might call wanting feature you in an article. Check out Fast Company’s piece on Ramon DeLeon (then with Domino’s) and the Chicago Reader’s piece by Anne Ford on Chicago’s Leslie Goddard.

You’re doing yourself a favor, and the media outlet, by having a photo on hand. Because deadlines and budgets are tight these days, editors and producers don’t always have the resources to send a photographer to get original pictures made for their stories. If by chance they are able to assign a photographer or hire a freelancer, there’s no guarantee the photo will communicate that you want it to.

Broadcasters find portraits useful too. Radio and TV stations have websites that need visuals to accompany their content.

Second: To help maintain or enhance your professional reputation, having a strong, smart online presence is important. If you are using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites, you’re expected to include a picture of yourself. You’ll want to use one that communicates the qualities you want the public to know about you. A good portrait of you can be worth more than one thousand words, because few people have time to read a thousand words about you, but a picture can send a message in split second.

Third: While a good portrait is worth a more than a thousand words, what is it worth in dollars? Priceless? Maybe. Because getting a portrait that works can be pricey, The Kring Group had developed BizPics: Headshots for Business. Professionals and job seekers are able to get good portraits made at a good price during portrait shoots scheduled periodically. New shoot dates are posted to Facebook and Twitter.

Examples from previous BizPics shoots are on Facebook. The shoots include both studio and environmental portraits, sometimes the services of a stylist…and some fun.