Andy Hall remembers hearing his mother on the phone, yelling at the local school superintendent over what she deemed were excessive purchases of school furniture from a company owned by one of the superintendent’s relatives.
“It only dawned on me much later that she must have been using public records to see those numbers,” says Hall in a recent interview.
Hall, who says he inherited his parents’ sense of outrage over public malfeasance and injustice, became quite familiar with public records as he pursued a career as an investigative journalist. In 1990, he and his wife, Dee Hall, also an investigative journalist, moved from Arizona to Madison to work at the Wisconsin State Journal, where they broke major sports and political stories.
But in July 2006, Andy’s job was changed from full-time investigations to K-12 education reporting. “That left me with an opportunity to consider my own future,” says Andy, who was 47 at the time. After much reflection and research, and conversations with Dee, he says he came to the conclusion that what mattered most in his professional life was investigative reporting and teaching.
Thus began a two-year process culminating in the launch in 2009 of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Journalism, now Wisconsin Watch. Andy, who retired from the organization in 2023, was the sole employee at the time the outlet debuted. The organization now counts 25 full-time staffers since its recent merger with Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.
Several other local media outlets have followed Wisconsin Watch’s lead, choosing to organize — or reorganize, as in the case of Isthmus — as a nonprofit. Why go nonprofit? For one thing, since the advent of the internet, there are no real profits to be generated in journalism. But it’s more than that, as Andy articulates well.
“Because we viewed journalism, particularly investigative journalism, as a public good, it makes sense to seek its revenue for its operations, much like other organizations do. Whether it’s an artistic organization or one focusing on the health of its community, all of these nonprofits are performing a public good and there is a long history of the public stepping up to support that kind of work — both through individual donations, corporate donations and foundation grants.”
Critically, like all 501(c)(3) organizations, donations to these nonprofits are tax deductible, making them more attractive, ideally, to individual donors and foundations.
Public radio and public television — here and across the country — have long operated as nonprofits, making the case for listener- and viewer-supported media. WORT-FM (89.9), Madison’s community radio station, is a nonprofit, while WVMO-FM (98.7), Monona’s community station, is a hybrid, “owned by and licensed by the FCC to the city of Monona,” but supported by Friends of WVMO, a 501(c)(3), says Lindsay Wood Davis, one of the station’s founders. That means donations to the station are tax deductible.
But the nonprofit model is a relatively new strategy for print media.
Madison365, operated by 365 Media Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, followed Wisconsin Watch by about six years, launching in 2015 as an online news site focused on communities of color with a mission to “to start conversations, find real and lasting solutions, build community, invite action and encourage emerging leaders in Greater Madison’s communities of color, and to foster dialog between members of diverse communities.” The nonprofit has since expanded to other parts of Wisconsin, launched podcasts, an events program and business membership program.
The Wisconsin Examiner, which offers in-depth beat reporting on state politics and government, is under the umbrella of States Newsroom, a 501(c)(3). The group now operates news outlets in every state. Tone Madison is a bit of a hybrid. Founded in 2014 by Scott Gordon, the online site focuses on culture and politics and has since 2018 worked with a fiscal sponsor in order to receive tax-deductible donations. But it decided in 2023 to become a worker cooperative, rather than a 501(c)(3).
“We call ourselves a nonprofit,” says Gordon. “Worker cooperatives are generally for-profits so the worker owners can get dividends. We set it up so it doesn’t have capital stock. Any of the profits we might have go right back into funding its operations.”
Gordon says the new organizational structure provides a sense of ownership to its four worker-members and allows them to work together closely on budgeting and long-term planning. “We like it because it adds another layer of protection against outside meddling and influence,” he says.
Umoja Magazine, also once privately owned, is now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit under the wing of the Urban League of Greater Madison. Founded by the late Milele Chikasa Anana in 1990, the magazine continues to focus on positive news about the African American community, says Leotha Stanley, who has been editor and publisher since 2023. The magazine now raises funds mainly through advertising, but Stanley says he is working to set up a reader donation program.
Some local media outlets were well ahead of the curve. The Simpson Street Free Press was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) by Jim Kramer in 1997. With a mission to improve academic achievement, it teaches students in grades 2-12 how to read and write and contribute work for publication. Other important training grounds for young journalists are also nonprofits, including The Badger Herald and The Daily Cardinal, both student papers at UW-Madison.
The Progressive incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in 1984, 75 years after its founding by Robert M. La Follette, says publisher Norm Stockwell. The magazine, which has a national audience, followed Mother Jones magazine’s conversion to a nonprofit, he adds: “Neither subscription revenue nor advertising revenue has been enough to sustain the kind of investigative news reporting that a publication like ours seeks to do.”
Isthmus became a 501(c)(3) in March 2021 after more than 40 years as a private alt-weekly. We quickly settled on the nonprofit model in early summer 2020, a few months after the paper’s former owners ceased print publication due to COVID — we felt we had little time to spare or we would lose our connection to readers and the community.
One of the first things we did as a nonprofit was apply for membership to the Institute for Nonprofit News. Since its founding in 2009, the group has grown exponentially, today including 450 news organizations.
Membership in INN allows us to participate each year in its end-of-year matching fundraiser, which has become our biggest fundraiser of the year. NewsMatch 2024 kicked off Nov. 1 — you’ll be hearing a lot about it from us over the next two months. If you aren’t already a member of Isthmus, now is a great time to consider joining or making a one-time donation at isthmus.com/support.
We have learned a lot in recent years — both about the promise and challenge of being a nonprofit media organization. It has certainly made us more aware of the important role nonprofits play in our community, which is how we landed on the theme for our November print issue. There are thousands of people in this city and county working in nonprofits to make our community a better place. It’s exhilarating, sometimes frustrating, always hard work. With just seven staffers, we’re working hard to grow and build an organization that will be around for another 50 years — we turn 49 this April! Thanks for sticking with us.
This article is part of The Nonprofit Issue, the special November 2024 print edition of Isthmus. See the other stories here.
