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Key links:
Primary website:
wisconsinwatch.org
Primary Twitter:
@WisWatch

Editor’s Note: Encyclo has not been regularly updated since August 2014, so information posted here is likely to be out of date and may be no longer accurate. It’s best used as a snapshot of the media landscape at that point in time.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism is a nonprofit investigative news organization that produces WisconsinWatch.org and focuses on statewide public-interest journalism.

The Madison-based center was founded in January 2009 with one full-time staff member. It had initial partnerships with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television and The Center for Public Integrity. The site had four full-time staff members as of 2013, as well as contributing reporters, interns and student journalists.

The center offers its reports for free to Wisconsin news media outlets. It is a founding member of the Investigative News Network.

The center has received numerous foundation grants, including $200,000 from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation and part of a $100,000 grant from the Joyce Foundation. It has also received revenue through partnerships with The Center for Public Integrity and J-Lab. As of 2012, nearly all of its funding came from foundations.

In June 2013, the Joint Finance Committee of the Wisconsin Legislature included in its budget proposal a provision kicking the center off the UW-Madison campus, though it receives no public funding. The decision was met with broad criticism and was vetoed by Gov. Scott Walker later that month.

Recent Nieman Lab coverage:
Oct. 15, 2014 / Joshua Benton
Events, a speakers bureau, and education partnerships: 8 projects at news nonprofits get funded — Back in April, we told you about a new grant program that funds small innovation projects at nonprofit news organizations. The INNovation Fund — awkward capitalization courtesy of its home at the Investigative News Net...
Aug. 5, 2014 / Liam Andrew
INN to offer paid tech consulting to members and non-members — Just before making an announcement last week, the Investigative News Network’s Adam Schweigert tweeted: Learning the hard way that it’s better to never give anything away for free, creates way too many false ince...
July 5, 2013 / Mark Coddington
This Week in Review: Greenwald and the journalists’ club, and a j-school’s big political win — Greenwald and the “who’s a journalist?” debate: As U.S. National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden tries to find a home (more on him later), the debate around the professional legitimacy of the jour...
July 1, 2013 / Joshua Benton
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism won’t be kicked off campus after all — If you missed it over the weekend, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism got a reprieve from the legislative attempt to boot it from its offices at the University of Wisconsin. Governor Scott Walker blocked t...
June 10, 2013 / Magda Konieczna
Saving “The Wisconsin Idea”: How the battle in Madison threatens a century of innovation — The Wisconsin state legislature’s attempt last week to evict the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from the campus on which it operates poses a threat to one hopeful model for the future of journalism, ...

Primary author: Mark Coddington. Main text last updated: October 31, 2013.
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