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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Editor’s Note: Encyclo has not been regularly updated since August 2014, so information posted here is likely to be out of date and may be no longer accurate.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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PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that examines the statements made by American political figures and pundits. It is run by the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times). PolitiFact was launched in 2007, a project of longtime political reporter Bill Adair (who left the site in 2013) and web developer Matt Waite. According to Waite,…

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