Steve Buttry is the Director of Community Engagement and Social Media at Digital First Media, the company that operates both MediaNews Group and Journal Register chains of newspapers (full disclosure: I used to work for The Denver Post, MNG’s flagship paper, and MediaNews Group’s corporate interactive group). He’s giving four workshops at Northern Kentucky University and here’s one of them, about what it means to be a “digital first” journalist of today. He shared it online via Slideshare –thinking very digital first, I’d say. You can check out his other presentations at Slideshare as well.

I’d like to hear Buttry go through this deck sometime, because he’s making great points that apply not only to students, but mid-career journalists. I’ve forwarded this to my students at the CU Independent, because they need to embrace this way of thinking, and this information will help them get jobs and aim their careers for the future of media.

According to NetNewsCheck, panelists at a conference in Boston think that hyperlocal news, at least so far, is a failed business model.

I can’t disagree, but I’m not buying their negativity either.

I believe the future of media is to be digital, and local, local, local. But so far, the national companies that are trying (or have tried) aren’t bringing in the revenues to sustain the growth they need, and only a few of the local blog-type operations have been notable successes. I think we’re still looking for the right product at the right time.

The panelists are right in that the focus has been so far on content, and not enough thought’s been put into revenue. But being from the content side myself, I think you need a solid track record of good journalism — strong content — to attract an audience, and that’s when you can monetize your content.

One development’s worth watching, though, is the ad network idea that Main Street Connect is pushing. It makes sense that if you’re in one town or neighborhood, you’d like to see ads from businesses in the next town, or two towns over. That way ads have larger reach if they’re visible on contiguous communities’ news sites. (The converse is why major metro dailies don’t have ads for mom-and-pop shops: Why pay a lot of money for an ad in the big paper if it’s delivered to homes 40 miles away in a suburb where people will never visit your shop?)

It may be uncomfortable to discuss advertising with journalists, but this is stuff we all need to be aware of, because it’s the key to our future careers.

Ultimately, I think — and hope — that newspapers can still claim that “hyperlocal” audience, both with content and advertising. We might have to share the space with a local blogger, or even a Patch site or two or more. But newspapers, especially the small-town press, have historically held the local readership close and those readers trust their newspaper as their main source of information. It’s the large metro dailies that will face the biggest challenge because they’re trying to be all things to all people over a much bigger area. Maybe it’s time for them to shave off slices of their market and create “hyperlocal” products to serve smaller geographic areas (The Denver Post’s YourHub is the oldest such experiment out there, although it’s managed by a silo’ed staff instead of the Post newsroom journos).

Just some thoughts spurred by this morning’s article about hyperlocal business models.

What do y’all think?

Wow, Pinterest truly is the fastest-growing social network: Poynter reports that according to comScore, Pinterest users increased by 52% just in February, to almost 18 million people posting pins to boards covering all kinds of topic.

And according to KQED’s Mind/shift blog, journalism instructors are finding ways to include Pinterest in their lesson plans. Because it’s such an easy-to-use visual platform, it’s ideal for aggregation, especially of images.

More and more media companies are expanding into Pinterest too. Although the bulk of its users today are women, the demographics are sure to balance out as more men, and more media companies, brands and non-profit organizations find their way onto the service.

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism surveyed over 3000 U.S. adults about their mobile device habits, and found that almost a quarter get news on at least two devices. Paper might be fading into history, but the digital pitcure’s getting brighter.

Now’s the time to embrace the evolution….

Media companies have been bemoaning the “original sin” of giving away content for free on websites in the early days of the Internet, starting in the early and mid-1990s, and blaming that decision for training consumers to seek out news for free instead of paying for content.

Now a Nielsen  study suggests that need for free news may already be affecting the future of paid news apps on tablets such as the iPad.

Users are willing to pay for movies and books on their tablets, the study suggests, but not so much for news. It’s true that most news apps are still free, setting up the same dynamic of the early Web.

I don’t think the study should cause us to give up the ghost for paid news content, although personally, I wonder if the proliferation of paywalls going up on newspaper sites across the country is a sustainable business model. Europe, for instance, seems to be OK with paying for their news on tablets and mobile devices. And, if charging for online content is the future, it won’t hit the tipping point until really, every site (or almost every site) is charging. I think that’s when consumers will accept the reality, and  understand that not paying for news has been the aberration.

We’ll have to wait and see….

NOTE: I’m Gil Asakawa, the chair of the SPJ’s Digital Media Committee. I’m currently the advsier for the University of Colorado’s student-run news website, the CU Independent.  In the past, I‘ve been a music critic, entertainment editor, and editorial chief for a bevy of online news sites. I’ve also worked at the corporate digital strategy level  for Advance Internet and MediaNews Group.  I’ll start to post short bits about online news on this blog as posints of discussion. I welcome other input from my fellow DigiCom members, and would love to have YOU, the SPJ membership, comment on these posts. I’ll also post longer pieces here, along with other members of the Digital Media Committee, and we’ll continue to publish a regular column in each issue of the Quill.

In our hyper-connected world, journalists are bound to think their jobs can’t get any better, what with social media filling communication gaps once considered too broad to hurdle.

That’s because it’s possible now to reach out from 10 miles or 1,000 miles and see what others see, hear what others hear — in effect, be where they are while we’re where we are. All that’s required is a smartphone, a tablet computer, and insight or a sense of humor quick enough to capture the crucial moment.

But while we’re hearing and seeing these other people’s experiences, we’re at the same time not actually hearing or seeing these people. One can have thousands of “friends” via Facebook or tens of thousands of “followers” via Twitter without actually knowing who these people are, a dichotomy that over time is bound to redefine what friendships and followings mean to us.

This dichotomy has spawned a wealth of analyses about the value of social media and whether humans are losing a key quality about themselves by not often meeting face-to-face, because these in-person meetings provide a wealth of information that digitized discourse does not.

Journalists coming into the profession today need to realize this, as this realization may mean the difference between producing good stories or great ones. By meeting interview subjects and sources in person, and not relying so much on technology, a journalist can:

Watch body language — Fear, happiness, anxiety, anticipation, these are traits not even Apple’s FaceTime can accurately detect. The casual twisting of one’s wedding ring, or tugging on a suit coat, or the bouncing foot at the end of a crossed leg, all show that the interviewee probably has other thoughts vying for attention between answers to a journalist’s questions. Pay attention to these quirks; they could point the way to the truth of the matter.

See the other side — Experiencing what life is like from other people’s perspectives opens one’s mind to their reality far better than a text or tweet or phone call. The government official begging for more funds from behind a marble desk likely won’t generate the kind of sympathy from readers as would the official who shares desk space with one or more colleagues, or has no desk, due to budget cuts. The welfare mother living in suburbia is sure to have a different if no less poignant story from the one who lives over a heating grate in an urban sidewalk. Often, knowing the story means knowing where the story comes from and seeing it for yourself.

Find common ground — Face-to-face meetings give both sides in an interview the opportunity to size up one another. They also provide journalists a means to finding common interests — favorite films, football teams or food, for example — the discovery of which can introduce a degree of trust that distance and technology can’t. If, say, the interview subject is a Packers fan (as I am), that key personal detail may stay buried unless I see the person walk up wearing a team jersey or swinging a Packers keychain. Otherwise, the journalist misses a chance to connect at a deeper level and the interviewee misses out knowing that reporters can be Packers fans, too.

Make good impressions — Along this line, face-to-face meetings break down barriers that interviewees presume always exist between journalists and the public. My entire career, first-time interviews have started out stiff and hesitant because neither of us is sure how the other will act initially. Convening over coffee or lunch gives journalists the opportunity to make a good, friendly, professional first impression that could be the catalyst for regular exchanges of information.

Learn secrets — In-person interviews also can be where people feel more comfortable, and safer, revealing off-the-record details. We never know for sure who’s watching or reading our electronic correspondence; a face-to-face meeting far removed from sources of tension opens conversations to more detail and color than a hushed or vague exchange via phone or email.

Technology has made talking to one another easier than ever, but it hasn’t necessarily made us easier to understand. Take time to meet people face-to-face and reduce the doubt and uncertainty that have sprouted like weeds throughout our digital world.

David Sheets is a sports content editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and STLtoday.com, and president of SPJ’s St. Louis Pro chapter. Reach him by e-mail at dsheets@post-dispatch.com, on Twitter at @DKSheets, or on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Just about everywhere these days, chances are good you’ll see walkers, talkers and (unfortunately) drivers with their faces tilted toward their smart phones as they text and tweet their every move. A byproduct of our digital lives has been an urge to let the world know where we are every moment, whether the world is interested or not.

This is a bane to the digitally uninterested but a boon to everyone else, particularly journalists, who are in the business of finding and talking to people. And topping the list of socially invasive tools with serious people-tracking capabilities is Foursquare, the 3-year-old location-based social networking site for mobile devices that now claims well over 15 million registered users worldwide.

Foursquare utilizes a mobile device’s global-positioning hardware to report where members are at a given moment when they “check in” at venues listed in the application database. The member can acquire “friends,” leave “tips” or advice about each location and post photos. Frequent visits earn travel points and the possibility of becoming “mayor” of that location. Furthermore, Foursquare awards “badges” for patterns of behavior, whether it’s visiting several coffee shops, seeing lots of movies or participating in product promotions.

The useful aspect for journalists is the digital trail Foursquare leaves; they can monitor member movements if they are “friended” by those members. In following this trail, it’s possible to track:

Frequent visitors — Foursquare lists real-time data on location, the current mayor, the latest tips posted by visitors, and the Foursquare identities of frequent visitors. Journalists can sift those lists for potential interview subjects if, say, it’s important to find interview subjects who are knowledgeable about particular locations or the clientele who visit them.

Personal behavior — When members check in at a location, all their friends can see where they are at that moment. Foursquare also displays lists of member badges, mayorships, tips, favorites and approximate arrival time at the last check in. Accumulated points hint at how often members are out and about, so it’s possible to guess an individual’s travel habits.

Trends — Besides seeing where people go, Foursquare shows how many other members are at a location. By clicking “Explore,” and then “Trending,” Foursquare shows potential social hotspots by listing all current check-ins, not just those by members’ friends. Want to find the most popular restaurant, the busiest nightclubs, the best concerts or surprisingly heavy traffic? Just watch where the Foursquare crowd is going.

Location information — Foursquare tips provide reasonably good detail from members about what’s going on at each location, whether it’s bad service at a restaurant or gridlock on the interstate. And Foursquare compiles the tips it receives, helping indicate whether a pattern of activity or potential news is breaking.

Foursquare isn’t the only geo-tracking social medium available, just among the most popular. Other tools worth trying are Gowalla, Loopt, Where, Yelp and, of course, Facebook, which added location-tagging about a year ago.

David Sheets is a sports content editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and STLtoday.com, and president of SPJ’s St. Louis Pro chapter. Reach him by e-mail at dsheets@post-dispatch.com, on Twitter at @DKSheets, or on Facebook and LinkedIn.