Microsoft to invest $300,000 in local journalism in NE Wisconsin
Microsoft is teaming up with six Wisconsin news organizations and the community foundations of Green Bay and the Fox Valley to support local journalism in northeastern Wisconsin.
The NEW (Northeast Wisconsin) News Lab is a “collaborative effort providing technology support, capacity building and additional funding to boost local journalism and newsrooms,” according to a news release from the community foundations.
The collaboration includes Fox Valley 365, The Post-Crescent, Green Bay Press- Gazette, The Press Times, Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Watch. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Journalism Department is an educational partner, and Microsoft has provided $300,000 to the Journalism Initiative Fund, established within the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation, in partnership with the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.
“Local newsrooms are the heart of their communities, and we’re glad to support this partnership as part of our Journalism Initiative,” said Microsoft President Brad Smith, who grew up in Appleton. “By supporting these newsrooms in northeast Wisconsin and providing them tools, technology and funding, we can ensure the region has healthy journalism for generations to come.”
The six NEW News Lab newsrooms will tackle in-depth local reporting projects about racism as a public health crisis, a lack of affordable housing, funding of local schools and the practices of local judicial systems. Initial installments of these stories will be released in the coming weeks, and each project will be available for free publication by other news organizations across the state and nation.
How to help: Donate to the Northeast Wisconsin Journalism Initiative Fund
The community foundations will play two main roles in the initiative, said Dennis Buehler, president and CEO of the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation. The foundations will aggregate and distribute money and resources to the NEW News Lab partners, and also bring together “a variety of diverse stakeholders” to discuss issues facing the community so news organizations can cover them in new, more accessible ways.
Microsoft selected northeast Wisconsin as its fifth, three-year local news pilot in part because of a strong history of impact and collaboration by the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation, Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region and local media, and TitletownTech’s partnership with the Green Bay Packers and Microsoft, according to the community foundations.
According to Microsoft, journalism and news are facing an accelerating crisis. Changes in digital advertising and in the way in which people receive their news — news aggregators, search engines and social media — have had a significant impact on journalism and its business model. Nationwide, newsroom employment has dropped by half and 2,100 newsrooms have closed in the past 15 years. The COVID-19 pandemic has created extra stress, with 11,000 newsroom jobs cut in the U.S. over the past year.
“There’s a concern that there are so many stories out there that are simply not being told … as newsrooms across our local area, state and country continue to be devastated economically — stories that are really important narratives for our communities to understand,” Buehler said.
Journalism is an important part of a vital, healthy community because news organizations can help bring to the public’s attention important local issues and ways to address them, said Curt Detjen, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.
“Here within our local region, we hope this initiative will bring credibility and integrity and a source of reliable information on important local issues that people can trust and get engaged in,” Detjen said.
To guide government at all levels, and make smart decisions for themselves and their communities, people must be well informed about job opportunities, schools and education, health and safety, urgent news and events, corruption and injustice, and how their elected representatives are serving public needs, said George Stanley, regional editor of USA TODAY Network-Wisconsin.
The Post-Crescent and Press-Gazette are part of the USA TODAY Network.
“This is how we address and solve problems in our democracy,” Stanley said. “These funds will provide a needed boost to reporting that informs our communities and improves lives.”
With the rapidly changing landscape of local news, philanthropy could play an important role in funding local news organizations in the future. The community foundations are encouraging other organizations, businesses and individuals to also make supporting local journalism an important focus.
“When this initiative demonstrates what it’s capable of doing, and how our communities are better for stronger journalism organizations, philanthropy will support it,” Detjen said.
Microsoft launched its Journalism Initiative last year, aiming to preserve and protect journalism and local newsrooms. Pilot programs are already underway in Seattle and Yakima, Washington; Fresno, California; the El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico region; and Jackson, Mississippi.
Contact Natalie Brophy at (715) 216-5452 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @brophy_natalie.
