FourSquare isn’t just for connecting with friends, colleagues and brands. Now the news media are getting involved.

In the last year we saw some outlets start to experiment with the platform, the focus now is clearly on engagement.

In a story for Nieman Journalism Labs, Tim Currie a journalism instructor at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, looked at the latest developments in how the media is serving up info geolocation-style.

Currie used Postmedia Network—whose member newspapers include the National Post, the Edmonton Journal, and the Vancouver Sun—as a case study because they “were among the most active in North America for placing editorial content into Foursquare.”

He wrote:

“Asked to characterize the articles they placed into Foursquare, the editors used phrases such as ‘feature-y,’ ‘evergreen,’ ‘opinion,’ ‘not hard-core news’ and ‘useful to people over a longer period of time.’ They cited successful efforts in using editorial content such as a film festival guide, a commentary on transit users and reviews of hip urban restaurants.”

The five categories of editorial content in which the editors said they place content are:

1. “An opinion, review, guide, or first-person account”;
2. An article the goal of inspiring interaction;
3. A story that is timeless—“or about an event lasting more than 2 days”’
4. An article “about a specific location or an activity typically done at a location”;
5. A story “placed at a location where people gather socially.”

You can read his full article here. Here is a SlideShare file of Currie’s report.
Postmedia's Use of Foursquare