Saadat introduced our guest speaker, Steve Shrout. Steve is the publisher of "Metro News", a free daily newspaper in Calgary and Edmonton.

Metro News is attracting the readership of "YAMS", young, active metropolitans. YAMS represent the non-traditional readers, are in constant motion, aware, smart and savvy and, most importantly, influenced by "brands".

In Calgary, Metro appeals to the 18 to 34 year age group and circulation is growing compared to traditional newspapers. Metro is a "hybrid" which can interconnect to its website and back again and can be read on I-phones and Blackberrys.

The stories are short to appeal to the YAM's short attention span intermingled with lots of "Rafts", short for advertisement particularly "brands". 60,000 copies are printed each day with only 5,000 returned. Each paper gets read at least twice.

Newspapers will not be replaced by the electric media, but it has to be the "right newspaper".

reported by Bill Tapuska