Public engagement and marketing assistant Natalie Yahr interviews Bob Blersch on primary election day at the Oconomowoc Community Center on Aug. 14, 2018, as part of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism series, Undemocratic: Secrecy and Power vs. The People. The nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is increasing the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy. Credit: Katie Scheidt / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
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Local, independent, fact-based reporting is essential to vibrant communities and a healthy democracy. We’re rebuilding and reimagining the future of local news across Wisconsin.
(Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
Our mission
Using journalism to make the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected.
Our impact
Our work helps people navigate their lives, be seen and heard, hold power to account and come together in community and civic life.
Our values
Our work is guided by these core values:
We are committed to service, prioritizing the needs of the communities we serve through relevant, empowering and civic-minded journalism.
Integrity drives us to report with truth, fairness and transparency, earning and maintaining public trust.
Through collaboration, we partner with organizations, residents and media outlets to amplify diverse voices and deepen our impact.
We act with initiative, identifying emerging issues and responding creatively to changing community needs.
We invest in growth by fostering a culture of learning, open communication and innovation to sustain our mission for future generations.
Who we are
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit organization dedicated to using journalism to make the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected. As a nonprofit investigative news organization, we expose injustices, listen to the everyday problems in our communities and shine a light on issues that too often go unnoticed. Every story we publish is rigorously fact-checked to ensure accuracy, fairness and impact.
We don’t just report the news — we connect communities. By collaborating with news organizations across Wisconsin and beyond, we expand the reach of our reporting, ensuring critical stories reach the people who need them most. Our multimedia investigations appear on WisconsinWatch.org and are republished by hundreds of outlets statewide.
Wisconsin Watch is home to multiple newsrooms and teams that work together to strengthen local journalism and amplify underrepresented voices:
Our statewide newsroom uncovers systemic issues affecting communities across Wisconsin, putting local challenges into broader context.
That newsroom’s statehouse bureau covers state and local government, ensuring our readers understand how the decisions made in the capital impact communities across Wisconsin.
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS), an independent community-based newsroom in Milwaukee that delivers deeply rooted, community-driven reporting on issues that matter to Milwaukee’s central city and communities of color.
Our northeast Wisconsin bureau is built around community connection, accountability and public participation. Aside from publishing stories, it exists to build a conversation with the people who live and work in northeast Wisconsin.
By exposing the truth, we spark change that improves communities across Wisconsin.
How do you know you can trust our work?
It’s harder than ever to know which information to trust. The sheer volume of news, opinions and misinformation online can make it difficult to separate credible reporting from content that isn’t grounded in facts. We understand that skepticism, and we believe trust must be earned, not assumed.
At Wisconsin Watch, our reporting is built on a commitment to transparency, accuracy and the public interest. We’re part of a network of respected journalism organizations that hold us accountable to high standards:
We are a founding member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, a community of nonprofit newsrooms dedicated to investigative reporting that serves the public.
We participate in the Trust Project, a global initiative that developed transparency standards — called Trust Indicators — to help you evaluate the credibility of our work and understand how our journalism is produced.
Through the CatchLight Local Visual Desk, we collaborate with other newsrooms to strengthen visual storytelling and make high-quality journalism more accessible.
As a member of Gigafact, we publish Fact Briefs that quickly and clearly respond to widely shared claims, helping set the record straight.
These partnerships don’t replace your judgment; they’re one way we show our work and invite scrutiny. We encourage you to explore our methods, review our sources when available and hold us accountable. Trust in journalism starts with openness, and we’re committed to providing it.
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is pleased to announce it has been been selected to host one of 50 journalists by Report for America, a national service program that places emerging reporters in local newsrooms to report on undercovered topics and communities.
The Center’s RFA corps member will investigate criminal justice issues in Wisconsin, including wrongful convictions and official misconduct. News organizations were chosen based on a demonstrated “civically-important gap in coverage” and “a strong plan to deploy new reporting resources in the public interest.”
“We’re so proud to be partnering with the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism — especially on such an important project,” said Steven Waldman, co-founder and president of Report for America. “It was a very competitive process, but the judges were impressed with both the past work of the Center and their plan for deploying a Report for America corps member to help track prosecutorial misconduct.”
Report for America’s 2019 news organizations span 26 states and territories. They include the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, a nonprofit watchdog group in Puerto Rico, the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead in North Dakota, Pulitzer-prize winning Cincinnati Enquirer and the Associated Press.
Corps members will be placed in nonprofit organizations, weeklies, public radio stations and daily newspapers. Additional news organizations and reporting positions will be announced in the coming weeks, bringing the total number of corps members to 60 in 2019. Full details here.
Center reporting intern Alexandra Arriaga interviews the family of Cesar DeLeon, a Wisconsin inmate who is being held in administrative confinement — a form of indefinite solitary confinement with no clear end date — on Dec. 14, 2016. If you would like to produce news that matters, apply to become the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism’s new Report for America reporter. Credit: Coburn Dukehart / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
The Center will be hiring a reporter who has audio skills, experience producing podcasts and interest or experience in covering criminal justice issues. Journalists interested in working for the Center or for other RFA news organizations must apply by Feb 8, 2019. The application and information can be found here: https://www.reportforamerica.org/rfa-corps-members/
Send us a tip
The Center’s new Report for America reporter will investigate criminal justice issues in Wisconsin, with a focus on officials who fail to act in the best interest of justice — and whether officials are held accountable for their actions.
Have a story tip that our new Report for America reporter should pursue? Send it to: tips@wisconsinwatch.org or Wisconsin Watch, P.O. Box 5079, Milwaukee, WI 53205
Report For America corps members typically have three to six years of experience, while some are recent graduates.
Adding a Report for America journalist will significantly boost the capacity of the Center, which has just four full-time permanent employees and largely relies on University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism students, paid interns and collaborations with Wisconsin Public Radio and other news organizations for its reporting.
“Funding to hire a talented young professional to join the Center’s staff is great news for us and for the state,” said Andy Hall, the Center’s executive director. “This support from Report for America will help us significantly expand our capacity to produce award-winning journalism focused on issues of importance to Wisconsin.”
Report for America is an initiative of the GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit news organization that supports young journalists around the world.
Center reporting intern Riley Vetterkind interviews Chuck Ripp at Ripp’s Dairy Valley farm in Dane County, Wisconsin on Sept 12, 2017. The Center will be hiring an early career journalist to join our small newsroom with support from Report for America. Credit: Coburn Dukehart / Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism
Report for America is funded by variety of sources including Facebook, the Google News Initiative, the Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, Dirk and Natasha Ziff, Galloway Family Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, The Tow Foundation, Select Equity Group Foundation, the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, The Steans Family Foundation, Henry M. Kimelman Family Foundation and the Duo Collective.
Report for America currently has 13 reporters in Georgia, Mississippi, Kentucky, New Mexico, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. The organization said it hopes to fund 1,000 reporters by 2023, which “speaks to the urgent need to close the local news reporting gap.”
The program, funded by both private and public donors, pays for half of each reporter’s salary. The remainder, any benefits such as health insurance, and expenses such as travel and acquiring public records, are covered by the local newsroom and local benefactors.
Donate to help us hire this reporter
The Center will be responsible for providing $20,000 — half of the Report for America reporter’s first-year salary — plus about $10,000 for health care and expenses such as travel and the costs of public records.
The Center expects to pay $20,000 in support of the first-year salary plus about $10,000 in payroll taxes, health care costs and business expenses such as travel and the cost of public records. Donations to support the Center’s new RFA reporter are welcomed online.
The Center, which this month begins its 11th year of operations, is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization housed in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
It increases the quality, quantity and understanding of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy while guided by three principles: Protect the vulnerable. Expose wrongdoing. Explore solutions.
The Center has produced more than 350 major reports, which are made available for free on its website, WisconsinWatch.org, and to news organizations.
More than 800 newsrooms have published, broadcast or cited the Center’s stories, reaching an estimated audience of more than 73 million. More information is available at: https://wisconsinwatch.org/about/
The nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.
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Report for America chooses Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism for local news effort
by Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch January 17, 2019
