Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization reporting fearlessly on inequity, broken systems and issues of importance to the state.
We currently have editors and reporters based in Madison, Milwaukee, and Oshkosh, and have other members of our robust editorial and business teams located across the state.
We publish our news stories on our website and distribute them statewide through our own distribution system and nationally through a variety of partnerships. We make our content free to republish.
How we work
To fulfill its mission, Wisconsin Watch combines innovative technology with time-tested journalistic techniques to increase the transparency of official actions, intensify the search for solutions to governmental and societal problems, strengthen democracy and raise the quality of investigative journalism.
We work by:
- Producing investigative reports independently and in partnership with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, and other for-profit and nonprofit news organizations including members of the Institute for Nonprofit News.
- Educating and training high school and college students and working journalists in investigative reporting techniques, including through guest lecturing and teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
- Offering paid reporting and public engagement and marketing internships to UW-Madison students, who work in a professional capacity for the Center.
- Partnering with Wisconsin Public Radio on their Mike Simonson Memorial Investigative Reporting Fellowship to train an early career radio reporter in investigative reporting techniques.
- Hosting fellows from other journalism programs, including the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program and The Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia University.
- Helping commercial news outlets, including ethnic media, pursue their own investigations or produce joint projects.
- Publishing and distributing investigative reports and offering a forum for sharing investigative findings, story tips and moderated discussions.
Our structure
Wisconsin Watch is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization operated by a professional staff under the guidance of a nationally noted board of directors.
Wisconsin Watch collaborates with, but is independent of, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication, where it is housed. Our organization receives free office space from the university in exchange for hiring paid student interns and for providing services and educational resources for students. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Wisconsin-Madison or any of its affiliates.
We also partner with Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where we share office space at Marquette University, and with mainstream and ethnic news media across the nation.
Wisconsin Watch is a founding member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, formerly the Investigative News Network, the first network of nonprofit journalism organizations that conduct investigative reporting in the public interest.
Wisconsin Watch is a national leader in promoting journalistic ethics and financial transparency standards.
Our focus
Our focus is on government integrity and quality of life issues. Since its launch in January 2009, Wisconsin Watch has distributed more than 350 major reports, exploring such issues as: the growing reliance on immigrants by the state’s dairy industry — published in both Spanish and English; the rising numbers of low-income students in Wisconsin schools; the role of DNA testing in proving the innocence of a dozen Wisconsin prisoners; Wisconsin’s troubling increases in suicides; the underreporting of sexual assaults on Wisconsin campuses; the flaws in Wisconsin’s GPS monitoring program; dwindling protections and incentives for whistleblowers; and the state of Wisconsin’s democracy.
Our reach
Many of the our reports are produced in collaboration with other news organizations in Wisconsin and nationwide. Since 2009 our reports have been cited, published or broadcast by more more than 1,200 news organizations including Wisconsin Public Radio, The New York Times, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, HuffPost, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin State Journal, The Capital Times, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Oshkosh Northwestern, La Crosse Tribune, Eau Claire Leader Telegram, The Country Today, WBAY-ABC in Green Bay, Hudson Star-Observer, Janesville Gazette, La Comunidad and WisPolitics.com. The Center’s reports have reached an estimated audience of more than 73 million.
Read about the way our work is having an impact, and testimonials from our partners, supporters and former interns.