The greatest story about social media. I don't think it gets better.
In November 2022, @TexasObserver became one of the first newspapers to start their own Mastodon server.
Unlike most newspapers, @TexasObserver operates as a non-profit.
This week, the non-profit’s board of directors voted to disband @TexasObserver.
But within 48 hours, people have given $250,000 so it can continue to exist.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/laid-off-texas-observer-journalists-and-staff
Pause and think about this.
Since November, journalists have been cynically dismissing the Fediverse, saying that journalists cannot subsist here.
Well, the Fediverse may have given @TexasObserver a lifeline! So much of the donations from the GoFundMe have come from the Fediverse — many commenters saying they discovered @TexasObserver from their Mastodon server.
We, the Fediverse, just might save a storied institution of journalism!
To be clear, @TexasObserver set up three funding goals.
The first goal was $100,000. They reached that goal within a day.
Then they created a stretch goal of $200,000. Again, goal reached.
The last stretch goal was $250,000. It was just reached.
On the Fediverse, there is clear demand for @TexasObserver's work.
Journalists, are you watching this?
Regardless of whether the board approves of @TexasObserver's continued work, this great example of crowdfunding should prove that journalists don’t need Big Social.
If you create your own Fediverse presence, foster a community, and write compelling stories — people here will take notice.
Give people on the Fediverse the option to fund your work, and maybe they just might do it.
For the past 30 years, journalists have watched as private equity firms hollowed out storied publications, tech companies plundered and plagiarized their work, and politicians made propagandastic demands.
And though @TexasObserver has always existed precariously, it’s lived on because people who give a damn have donated to it.
Personally, I believe crowdfunding is a way forward for journalism, and @TexasObserver has tapped into something special.
I think a good point here is that many, do what they're going to do anyway, in creating (creating whatev - videos, applications, news articles, recipe and travel blogs, tutorials and HowTo's, etc.
In some spaces, liked YouTube, it's tend to dilute the emphasis on the creative, part, and putting more attention into catering to the monetization schemes.
In the Fediverse, that's not a major consideration for people creating, and as such, many times people will pickup some slack because they recognize this and wish to have more of this organic creation 🤘😎🤘
#tallship #Fediverse #tipping #donating #creating #giving
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There's a mentality of independence and direct support behind the #fediverse that is also exactly what great journalism requires. Do all the technical improvements but we're only going to win here by spreading that early web spirit/thinking. It's needed in the entire society. Thinking about culture as a shared commons. Kind of a libertarian socialism for our minds.
@atomicpoet @TexasObserver European media is also now flocking to the fediverse due to GDPR problems with big tech outlets (bird site and face plant).
I know of successful campaigns by Heise (German tech publisher) and German TV/media broadcasters.
Journos, take the lesson and give it a try. It's not scary :-)
@DHarvey @atomicpoet @TexasObserver @fediversenews
I work for the Herald, but I am a freelance, not on the team. Sadly any media company’s managers will require journalists to stick with Twitter while it continues to deliver readers. If Mastodon did this, it would be packed with journos.
I wrote my first summary of @[email protected] on #Mastodon almost two months ago: Time for an update. One thing in advance, even if it has become noticeably quieter here in the #Fediverse, the numbers remain pretty stable: Visits via Mastodon are still slightly below that via #Twitter, but as a reminder, I can only compare visits generated via our accounts on #Mastodon with all visits over #Twitter. So the actual numbers are even closer together. (@[email protected] on Twitter has 246.000 Followers, on Mastodon it's 45.500) On the first graph I have summed up the weekly entries via Mastodon vs. Twitter since the #Mastodon account went live at the beginning of November. The steady growth is partly due to the fact that only articles shared both on Mastodon and Twitter are included, and their number has increased. Overall, more visits come via Mastodon than via #Bing or #Xing. The engagement (#boosts plus #likes, no #comments) with posts of @[email protected] stagnates, but remains significantly above that on Twitter. I find only four posts from heise-accounts on Twitter in this time that have been shared at least 50 times, on Mastodon it's a whole 125 (!). At the same time, nothing really goes #viral on #Mastodon, the upward swings of visits are significantly higher on Twitter. A new initiative that shows noticeable effects is #Verpasstodon (something like "missed-o-don"): Under this hashtag @[email protected] re-shares on weekends the most clicked articles of the past week. And they get klicked noticeably again. There is no criticism directed at the practice, the hashtag can be muted without missing anything else. Despite such ideas, 89% of the visits via #Mastodon come on the first two days vs. 81% over Twitter. A few more numbers: In total, @[email protected] has more than 122,000 interactions (#Boosts and #Likes, overview in the second image "Interaktionen"), per article that's an average of more than 26. About 4700 articles were shared, more than 500 of them have more than 50 interactions. More than 1000 each: https://mastodon.social/@heiseonline/109550376533582612 https://mastodon.social/@heiseonline/109670205634915816 Follower numbers of @[email protected] grow very slowly, but the speed has increased since the Twitter account has a link to the Mastodon-account. @[email protected] is now the largest German-language media-account, slightly in front of @[email protected]. In the USA, there is a larger one with @[email protected], but a few regional media are particularly active (#Newstodon). The third picture shows visits via Mastodon and Twitter over the last 80 days. Hope this is interesting for english-speaking accounts, too: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] (📎3)
@atomicpoet @TexasObserver @fediversenews
Hopefully, if the board isn't smart enough to reverse their decision... any reason the team @ @TexasObserver couldn't spin off into their own non-profit?
@atomicpoet @TexasObserver @fediversenews
This is a heartwarming story. But I don't understand how the newspaper could collect enough funds through crowdfunding, but not through reader subscriptions (I imagine it's a regular paper, to which you can subscribe, right?)
In other words, why are supporters willing to make donations, but not subscribe?
The newspapers I subscribe to are some that don't have a paywall and let you decide what you can afford to pay. Currently, that's @tazgetroete and @TheGuardian.
I also subscribe to a small, independent local paper that was under threat of closure during the height of the pandemic.
Michael Wray
Chris Trottier
Dendan Setia (Nins)
PJ "Vote Green" Coffey
Pamela Barroway – Biz Editor
tallship
william.maggos
jonny
John [He, Him, His] 🌈👨🏼🔬🧬🧫🧪💻
Guy
David Harvey
Bill Bennett
Connected Places
Martin Holland
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
Ms AB ☕
Ted Garrison
Matthieu Weber 🇫🇷/🇫🇮
Voron
GunChleoc