When co-founders Andy Hall and Dee J. Hall prepared to launch the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, they worked with a former newspaper colleague to design a logo. Our audience has come to identify us by the magnifying glass keeping watch on the state of Wisconsin.
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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.
Now, as we enter our second decade, we’re excited to announce our new look and renewed commitment to our mission to increase the quality, quantity and understanding of investigative journalism to foster an informed citizenry and strengthen democracy.
Why are we doing this? When we were chosen to participate in the Facebook Local News Membership Accelerator, we knew one of the issues we wanted to tackle was ongoing confusion over who we are and what our name is. Are we Wisconsin Watch? The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism? WCIJ? The Center?
Wisconsin Watch is saying goodbye to our old logo to make way for a new look.
We enlisted the help of Traction Factory, an agency in Milwaukee, and K2D Strategies, an agency in Washington D.C.
It became clear to us that both names serve a purpose, but we could do a better job of clarifying those roles for the public.
Starting today, Wisconsin Watch will be our identity in regards to our investigative reporting, and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism will describe the organization as a whole, including the work we do training student and professional journalists.
You can still find us at wisconsinwatch.org, and for simplicity’s sake, we’ll now be @wisconsinwatch on social media.
Our new visual style is familiar, but a bit bolder and brighter, to reflect our dedication to bold, high-impact investigative reporting.
Our homepage, social media profiles, and newsletters, including Wisconsin Weekly, will have a refreshed, more cohesive look.
While our look is evolving, our commitment to providing fact-checked, in-depth investigations on Wisconsin issues is unwavering. Wisconsin Watch will continue to dig into secretive conduct by public officials, abuse of power, environmental risks, and other issues, guided by three values: Protect the vulnerable. Expose wrongdoing. Explore solutions.
Together, we will keep Wisconsin under a magnifying glass as we pursue — and expose — truth, to build a better state.
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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For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Jeff Bauer, digital editor and producer, at jbauer@wisconsinwatch.org
Wisconsin Watch unveils a new look to reflect dedication to bold investigative reporting
