I am Digital Transformation Editor for Digital First Media and Journal Register Co. To contact me by email, write me at stephenbuttry (at) gmail (dot) com.
Before joining JRC and DFM, I was director of community engagement for TBD.com, a local news site covering the Washington Metro Area. From 2008 to 2010, I was at Gazette Communications in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I was editor of The Gazette and GazetteOnline and C3 Innovation Coach. I was named Editor of the Year in 2010 by Editor & Publisher.
I have spent more than 40 years in the news business, starting as a carrier for the Columbus Citizen-Journal (may it rest in peace) in Ohio in the 1960s when I was in junior high. I started writing professionally for the Evening Sentinel (also deceased) in Shenandoah, Iowa, in August 1971, when I was getting ready to start my senior year of high school. I’ve worked as a reporter, editor and writing coach for the Des Moines Register, Kansas City Star and Times, Minot Daily News and Omaha World-Herald.
I started training journalists in the 1990s and made it a full-time pursuit in 2005 when I went to work for the American Press Institute. I spent the next three years teaching and researching innovation and training journalists and newspaper executives around the world. I still like to train and teach at newsrooms, conferences, seminars and universities. I’m an adjunct faculty member of Georgetown and American universities, though not teaching anything this semester.
I hope I have contributed to the pursuit of a new business model for the news business with my Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection and my call for a mobile-first strategy.
I have pursued my journalism career in 44 states and nine Canadian provinces as well as Ireland, Venezuela, Mexico, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador and Siberia.
This is my primary blog, but I also blog about baseball on Hated Yankees and I blog about travel with my wife, Mimi, at 2 Roads Diverged.
You can read more in separate pages about my journalism career, my journalism training career, my journalism teaching career, disclosures about me and my consulting and training services or in my Google profile, Intersect storyline of my career, Timetoast timeline of my career, Pinterest pinboard about my career or my curriculum vita.
This page has the following sub pages.
[...] is a little taste of what Steve Buttry, writing for the American Press Institute, had to say about some of these issues back in 2006. [...]
hi steve:
just read your article “complte community connection” in Iowa Newspaper Foundation’s “evolution” publication.
congrats on your creative thinking!
maybe we can connect one of these days on my way through cedar rapids.
cheers,
jeff mayers
president
iowapolitics.com
608-212-9422
[...] Steve Buttry About: Steve is the new Director of Community Engagement for a new digital news operation in [...]
Congrats, Steve.
I’m a big Brady fan.
I will be watching your innovative work in DC.
Safe travels,
Ellen Foley
Madison, Wisconisn
Thanks, Ellen! If I say I’m a big fan myself, that either states the obvious or looks like I’m sucking up to the boss. But I am a big fan. Delighted with the new gig.
Hi Steve,
I landed on your blog via a Facebook post from Jason Crane, another TCU alum, and was very impressed by your comments about Tweeting the Austin tragedy.
Would you mind emailing me so I’ll have that in my address book? I have a few questions I’d love to visit with you about as well.
Nancy Bartosek
Editor, The TCU Magazine
Congratulations on the E & P award! DC Doesn’t know what it’s getting!
I have been working with mobile media as it relates to direct marketing, and would be happy to discuss ways to apply this to news dissemination.
– Ira Lacher
Des Moines
[...] About Steve Buttry [...]
[...] Blog di Steve Buttry [...]
Congratulations on hiring the GREAT Dan Victor! Of course we might be slightly prejudiced because he’s our grandson, but his progress in computerized journalism has given us good reason to be proud.
[...] er allerede ved at være for sent at få en plads i førersædet i forhold til mobil-strategier. Steve Buttry, tidligere ansat v. American Press Institute, understreger vigtigheden af, at medierne ikke [...]
[...] delle Competenze del Community Manager Steve Butty, Director of Community Engagement [Responsabile Interazione Sociale*], di TDB, interessante [...]
[...] of the above, big thanks to TBD Community Engagement Director Steve Buttry (photo) for running a link to my thoughts on civic involvement, compensation and other [...]
[...] more details, see a just-posted Scandals comment by Steve Buttry, TBD’s community engagement director, as well as the coverage from the Dish and the [...]
[...] How will TBD.com, the Web news startup in the D.C. area, work with the more than 90 independent bloggers in its network? The TBD blog has some details, although I don’t notice any huge surprises, just good common sense in the post by Community Engagement Director Steve Buttry. [...]
[...] Jim Brady, the former executive editor and vice president of Washington Post Newsweek interactive. Steve Buttry, the site’s head of community engagement, has a long history in traditional journalism, training and innovation. (For any journalist [...]
[...] About Steve Buttry [...]
Hello Steve,
We spoke months ago for a piece I was writing about Leonard Downie’s research report on funding journalism for the Cronkite Journal. The magazine has finally been published online and in print. You can find the story at http://cronkite.asu.edu/assets/pdf/journal10-11.pdf.
Thank you again so much for taking the time to do the interview. You certainly know your stuff and it was a pleasure speaking with you.
[...] Steve Buttry, Director of Community Engagement, TBD [...]
[...] is when that idea of “good enough” that I recently learned in Steve Buttry‘s class kicks in. Readers of my paper are used to the hard copy publication and those stories [...]
[...] no one is more generous with their time and in sharing resources than Steve Buttry, director of Community Engagement & Social Media for the Journal Register Company, who has [...]
[...] up with good writing should be the foundation of the brand. In a blog post from The Buttry Diary, Steve Buttry says that branding is the opposite of generic and journalists need to understand that. Branding is [...]
[...] Steve Buttry has spent nearly 40 years in the newspaper business and, having successfully crossed over to digital journalism, is now the the Director for Community Engagement at TBD, a site that focuses on DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia news. Throughout his lecture today, he engaged the class with several sites that took a news story to another level of online journalism. There were interactive maps, additional video/photo footage, and links that let the reader navigate the story for themselves. [...]
[...] Steve Buttry, director of community engagement and social media for the Journal Register Co., is writing a series of valuable blog posts about Digital First journalism. Today’s entry is titled “10 ways to think like a Digital First journalist.” [...]
[...] Steve Buttry, Director of Community Engagement and Social Media at Digital First, was invoked many times in our conversation. Mr. Buttry also visited the Charleston Daily Mail recently to share his expertise about “Digital First” journalism. Today, he published a summary of his recent series on the issues, and each of those blog posts may be downloaded and viewed as PDF files by clicking here. [...]
[...] engage with users, journalists must take initiative to reach out to Facebook community pages. Steve Buttry shares tips to aid journalists with proper Facebook community engagement. They [...]
[...] Steve Buttry shares a quick guide for journalists on how to effectively attribute sources without wearing out writing. [...]
[...] Steve Buttry addresses the issue of journalists’ expression via social media with three main principles: [...]
[...] Steve Buttry highlights some characteristics of Digital First journalists that differ from the traditional mindset of journalism. [...]
[...] Steve Buttry discusses a new training concept out of Connecticut that puts a twist on digital skill development. [...]
[...] Steve Buttry shares 13 ways reporters should cover a beat blog: [...]
[...] Steve Buttry addresses concerns on how journalists should handle crowdsourcing through personal and newsroom social media accounts. [...]
[...] Steve Buttry offers career advice on how journalists can break out of the twitter monkey status. Buttry’s advice is useful for any journalist wanting to advance in the newsroom and gives an accurate depiction of what the next steps are. Some of the strong points that I would like to emphasize are: [...]
[...] Steve Buttry highlights timeless journalism skills that are applicable to all platforms. [...]
[...] Steve Buttery debunks some of the misconceptions that more than a few “traditional” journalists have about online journalism. The blog post is written as a response to a newsroom curmudgeon, but it’s worth a read even if you’re not at all curmudgeonly (and of course, none of us are). [...]
[...] Steve Buttry presented a webinar on how to apply social media platforms Facebook and Twitter to journalism. [...]
[...] Steve Buttry emphasizes the ability for writing tight stories in order to hold the reader’s attention. Buttry stresses the following key tips that make for better, tighter writing. [...]
Steve >> Enjoyed our roundups during your Gazette tenure. You probably have heard that your Co- Editor and replacement has recently went on to bigger and higher pasture,
Yes, Merle, I did hear about Lyle’s new gig. I certainly wish him and Iowa Watch and the Gazette well.
[...] About Steve Buttry [...]
[...] consumers through the overwhelming mass of information. Digital First’s frequent commentator, Steve Buttry, describes the new task [...]
[...] consumers through the overwhelming mass of information. Digital First’s frequent commentator, Steve Buttry, describes the new task [...]
[...] in-depth discussion of live tweeting do’s and dont’s from Steve Buttry, Director of Community Engagement & Social Media, Digital First Media, aimed at journalism [...]
[...] a facilitar, guiar y dirigiar a los consumidores a través de la masa abrumadora de información. Steve Buttry describe bellamente esa nueva [...]
[...] Tuner went on hiatus for a time but was restored later as the eTuner. It was compiled by Steve Buttry, a highly respected reporter, editor and digital media expert who at the time was with the American [...]
[...] you can’t watch a story unfold on Twitter? Think again. Steve Buttry describes how Denver Post staff writers were able to give its readers and Twitter followers [...]
[...] Steve Buttry, Director of Community Engagement & Social Media for Digital First Media, was on hand for the debut and blogged about the experience. We also got some national attention from Digital First Media in this news release about NewsVroom. [...]
[...] a workshop at the University of Colorado School of Journalism on digital media. The presenter, Steve Buttry, from Digital First Media, made it crystal clear that you need to be an entrepreneur to get a job [...]
[...] in a partnership with The New York Times Magazine. Efforts by people – former The Gazette editor Steve Buttry, for example – and others to build communities of collaborating citizen journalists are seen as a [...]
[...] About Steve Buttry [...]
[...] Buttry. Google him. Or better yet, just click here to see why he’s a big deal in the journalism [...]
[...] Steve Buttry, a prolific editor, writer and FOJ thinker, posted a presentation on beat blogging that reinforces many of the concepts we’ve been discussing. It’s worth reading. [...]