By Sharon Hill

Suburban Newspapers of America (SNA) is holding its Fall Publishers and Ad Directors Conference, dubbed Mediamorphosis, this week in Phoenix, Ariz. The conference will focus on multimedia transition that produces revenue, best practices that others can emulate, and a talk about the transition of paid online content – or not. We’ll be there, writing about it. I’ll be tweeting the conference as @TheMediaTiger , #mediamorphosis

One of the most progressive ideas to be presented comes from Canada’s Metroland Media. Metroland’s new Shop Talk product debuted in its York region of Ontario and is moving rapidly to all its community newspapers.  It is produced and managed by Metroland”s Digital Video Group, headed by former newspaper powerhouse Meriel Bradley. The concept combines print, QR codes, blogging and video, to transition its legacy newspaper properties into one-stop media marketing resources for local businesses. One stop on the 2011 Innovation Mission for a small group of traveling SNA members, Shop Talk impressed other SNA newspaper executives so much that some are in the midst of creating Shop Talk clones.  Continue reading →