Mastodon servers for journalists

With Twitter's well-publicised problems post-Musk takeover weighing heavily on many users' minds, huge numbers of people are starting to explore Mastodon, an open-source community platform, as an alternative.

Unlike Twitter, it's not centralised — so you need to find a server to be your “home base” — even if you can follow people from any server once you have an account. The Guardian has a pretty good explainer on the service.

Here's the servers specifically for journalists that I've found so far:

Federated.press

A server for people who are willing to follow a code of journalistic ethics, specifically the Society of Professional Journalists one.  Not just for journalists, but anyone willing to follow the code while doing any form of reporting.

Mastodon

A Mastodon server for all who pursue the journalistic ethic. Please click “Learn more” and read our rules and Code of Ethics before applying.

Mastodon hosted on federated.press

Journodon

Flagged up to me by Richard Collins (thanks!), it's “run from the UK and aimed at working journalists, following the core principles and values of public service journalism.” It was set up by Matt Deegan.  

Journodon

A place to join Mastodon, if you’re a journalist or someone who works for a recognised media organisation.

Mastodon hosted on journodon.com

Journa.host

An instance setup by Adam Davidson, former NYT journalist and current Substack newsletter writer. For working journalists and academics only — and with a fairly intense verification system that can involve filling in several forms.

It's reportedly having some issue with other Mastodon instances defederating from it, as this toot from the founder shows. (A “toot” is the name for a post on Mastodon.)

Mastodon

An experimental server to help onboard journalists to Mastodon.

Mastodon hosted on journa.host

Mastodon server for verified journalists

Another server for verified journalists, which defaults to using your email address for proving your identity and eligibility. This one was set up by Matt Karolian of the Boston Globe.

MastodonMedia.XYZ

Mastodon ServerFor Verified Journalists

MastodonMedia.XYZMastodon Media

Newsie.social

A server aimed at journalists and publishing folk, which is run by the people behind Fourth Estate.

Newsie Social

Newsie is the place for journalists, news-people and comms pros.Signups open to the industry.Server operated by the Fourth Estate® team.

Mastodon hosted on newsie.social

The Audience Instance

My own, newly-launched server, designed for people working in audience strategy, social media and SEO within journalism and the creator economy.

The Audience Instance

A Mastodon server for discussing audience strategy, digital journalism and the creator economy.

Mastodon hosted on follow.onemanandhisblog.com

Mastodon verification for journalists

Dave Lee of the Financial Times has set up a service to verify journalists are who they say they are:

PressCheck.org - Home

Home

Know of any more? Drop me a line to let me know.