Has local news ever been more important? Journalists who live in the communities they serve don’t just keep residents informed on everything from wildfires and power outages to new businesses and upcoming events — though that’s vital. They hold truth to power and keep people in positions of authority accountable. They also connect communities.

Flipboard has worked with local papers and websites since its inception. Now, as part of the gradual federation of our platform, we’re bringing some of those publications to the fediverse. To learn more about what fedi folks actually want when it comes to local outlets, we simply asked them. They told us the specific publications they’d like to see, and voted in a poll on the region they were most interested in. (The Midwest, it turns out!)

Today, we’re flipping the “fedi switch” on 64 U.S.-based local and regional publications that we think will enrich the fediverse and make it even more useful for community members. These include news-focused publications like South Florida Sun Sentinel and Cleveland.com, lifestyle titles such as Denver Life, and papers that go deep on specific issues — think High Country News, which looks at environmental issues in the American West, and Honolulu Civil Beat, which focuses on public affairs reporting in Hawaii. There’s also Texas Monthly, because who doesn’t love a side of barbecue with their award-winning journalism?! If you responded to our thread on Mastodon and we’ve got the publication on Flipboard, we’re federating it. 

To help you better curate your fediverse experience, you can follow the publisher’s profile to see everything they post, or you can follow their topically curated Magazine feeds to see only the content you’re interested in (if the publisher organizes their content using our Magazine feature). For example, search for KPBS Public Media San Diego’s federated profile on Mastodon, and you’ll see all its Magazines on topics like climate, immigration, politics and more. Take a look for Votebeat (a nonprofit that reports on elections) and you’ll find its Magazines for Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas. Each of these is followable, just like a profile.

Here are the fediverse handles of a few of the newly federated publishers: 

CalMatters, fediverse handle @CALMatters 

Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer, fediverse handle @clevelandnews

Denver Life Magazine, fediverse handle @DenverLifeMag 

High Country News, fediverse handle @HighCountryNew 

Honolulu Civil Beat, fediverse handle @HonoluluCivil

KPBS Public Media San Diego, fediverse handle @KPBSPublicMedia 

South Florida Sun Sentinel, fediverse handle @SunSentinel

Texas Monthly, fediverse handle @TexasMonthly 

Votebeat, fediverse handle @Votebeat

To find out if your favorite regional publication is federated, simply check out the “local” tab of this database. And reach out to us on our Flipboard account in the fediverse if you have a suggestion for a publisher you’d like to see in the fediverse. Here, more information on Flipboard’s federation journey so far.

— Carl Sullivan, North America managing editor, co-curates Flipboard’s Politics Desk and the News Desk in the fediverse.