
President and founder, Yore Town LLC
Phoenix, Arizona Area

President and founder, Yore Town LLC
Phoenix, Arizona Area
Sharon's background is in two decades of newspapers, primarily in classified advertising including management. As a senior writer/analyst for Classified Intelligence (now The AIM Group) she kept abreast of and published information about newspapers and newspaper vendors, and provided analysis for media clients. She also wrote the monthly "Classified Intelligence Case Studies" newsletter, which looked at products and ideas that newspapers and other media have used to grow their classified advertising.
She and partner Kevin Hill just started Yore Town, an online community history social network in a hosted/licensed format. It will be available to community newspapers, other media and/or city and county governments or historical agencies, to license.
As sales and marketing manager for SNA she recently worked with newspapers and industry vendors to organize conferences and alliance conference calls, wrote about advertising tools and ideas, helped host conferences and Webinars, and brought its members the multimedia tools and ideas they need to help them succeed.
She is also, with Bill Fenson, author of "Implementing and Managing Telework: a Guide for Those who Make it Happen," published by Praeger Press.
She offers two blogs, Work at Home Job Genius - www.workathomejob.ning.com - about telework. And Newspaper Tiger - www.newspapertiger.com - about the evolution of community newspapers. For information on the upcoming Yore Town platform, see www.yoretown.wordpress.com
advertising copy design, classified advertising sales and management, inside and outside sales and marketing, recruitment and remote work consultation, business management, public speaking and writing/reporting both non-fiction and feature.
(Civic & Social Organization industry)
November 2008 — Present (1 year 1 month)
Yore Town is a hosted locally-focused history site with heavy focus on oral history and user-generated content. Launch is expected in the fall of 2009, in two locations - Phoenix and Yuma Arizona. For more information, see www.yoretown.wordpress.com , it's informational blog. Two pages explain features - the User Features page, and the If U Owned the Local Yore Town page.
(Newspapers industry)
2007 — Present (2 years )
A part time freelance writer, I study and report on the multimedia evolution of community newspapers and the industry vendors and ideas that help them grow.
(Writing and Editing industry)
1996 — Present (13 years )
freelance writing and ad copywriting firm, for clients such as The AIM Group, DigitalMediaBuzz.com, Blue Ridge Business Journal, Retirement Lifestyles in the Carolinas magazine and small business entrepreneurs.Ghostwrote/co-authored telework book with client, entitled "Implementing & Managing Telework: a Guide for Those who Make it Happen," published by Praeger Press.
(Newspapers industry)
August 2007 — June 2009 (1 year 11 months)
For this trade association to the suburban and community newspaper industry I worked with newspapers and the vendors that help them thrive. I introduced non-members to the benefits of the SNA program, and helped put together informative programs such as the classified alliance and the annual classified conference. I also reported for SNA publications.
(Privately Held; Management Consulting industry)
January 2003 — August 2007 (4 years 8 months)
For this consultancy to the media industry I provided business management writing, professional analysis on client projects and network with media management in print, Web publishing and broadcast. My news beat is newspapers and newspaper vendors. I have returned to writing for them on retainer as of June 2009.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Publishing industry)
2000 — 2001 (1 year )
For McCarthy Media, I oversaw the news, distribution and advertising sales for their weekly recruitment magazine.
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Publishing industry)
1997 — 2000 (3 years )
I managed a classified advertising department of 10 inside sales reps, and 4 telemarketers, oversaw the front end conversion from Atex to Baseview, was responsible for hiring, training and motivating, department marketing materials and advertising, and conflict resolution.
(Public Company; 11-50 employees; Publishing industry)
1995 — 1997 (2 years )
As classified supervisor, I managed two inside sales reps and conducted outside classified advertising sales calls.
(Public Company; Newspapers industry)
1985 — 1992 (7 years )
(Newspapers industry)
1977 — 1981 (4 years )
writing, public speaking, multimedia advertising, social networking, newspaper and broadcast nostalgia, oral history, walking, country music, dancing, murder mysteries, anything new, anything old.
Southwest Oral History Association, Women of Visionary Influence (WOVI)