Newspapers hosting their own Mastodon instances is the wrong model.
This here by WaPo, newspapers verifying their journalists wherever they toot, is the right model.
@ben What is the issue with newspapers hosting their own Mastodon instances?
@mtomczak also, is everything a journalist says officially part of the newspaper's message?
@ben @mtomczak with email we always had personal + work accounts, why not do the same here?
And with that said, Mastodon needs support for multiple "personas" so you could link these accounts to tell people they belong to the same person in a standardized way (not just profile linking and not just the migration setting). Along with better visibility / privacy settings like "circles", etc.
I would have the newspaper have their own instance, to handle the departments.
Like if there are three Local Beat journalists, they can be on their own instances, but @Local@CityNews.Paper would Reblog their articles as one.
That way, if people are interested in the newspaper, they can follow it. Or if they are interested in the journalist, they can follow them.
@mtomczak what happens when someone leaves their job and goes somewhere else? Moving accounts is doable but not without pain. Journalists should build their own brand independent of their employer.