WNA President George Stanley, a nationally respected veteran news leader and longtime Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editor, has been named CEO of Wisconsin Watch, effective Oct. 16, the organization announced Tuesday. The following is a letter from Stanley to WNA members.

My friends and colleagues in WNA:

As we all know too well, the business model based on local commerce that long supported local news coverage, from our smallest towns to our biggest cities, has been hammered in recent years. 

I’m hoping we can start filling the gaps this has caused in coverage through collaboration with Wisconsin Watch, the WNA and our member news organizations — where we work together to provide independent, truth-seeking news coverage. 

I want to work with our WNA and Wisconsin Watch staff to make sure all members know they can freely publish and post Wisconsin Watch stories about state government coming out of Madison, and also give feedback to Wisconsin Watch about stories their readers need and want. 

Let’s work together to develop a citizen training and certification program, so that people who live in our communities and are interested in civic life can attend public meetings and hearings, report what happens, be there if someone knows about wrongdoing or incompetence and wants to bring it to the public’s attention. We might not have enough reporters and editors to cover all the important government business going on these days, but we can develop a corps of citizen observers to still make sure the public knows what’s going on.

And if any newsroom in Wisconsin finds out about a problem that needs to be exposed, but doesn’t have the resources to gather the records, build the spreadsheets, document the evidence and tell the story, let’s put a process together where they can come to Wisconsin Watch and get the support needed. It will still be their story. The reporter or editor or photographer who found it will still be at the center of it.  But we’ll work together to build the team necessary around them to bring the story home and have maximum impact. 

I’m hoping we can use this cooperative approach to strengthen news gathering, reporting and impact statewide, to water our deserts and lift all our boats, as we build out the new business model for local news. 

— George Stanley, WNA President