News & Announcements

Jessica Contrera of The Washington Post is the winner of the 2022 Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics, the Center for Journalism Ethics at UW-Madison announced Tuesday.

Contrera earned the award for her stories on child sex trafficking in the U.S. She will accept the award May 17 during a ceremony at the University Club in New York City. The ceremony also will include a conversation on journalism ethics with NBC's Lester Holt and award-winning journalist and author David Maraniss.

Andrew Johnson, past president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, WNA Foundation and National Newspaper Association, has been elected to the Dodge County Board of Supervisors, the (Beaver Dam) Daily Citizen reports. In a race for the county’s District 9 seat — to which he was appointed in June 2021 to fill a vacancy — 72% of ballots were cast for the former publisher.

Johnson sold his trio of newspapers — the Dodge County Pionier, the Campbellsport News and the Kewaskum Statesman — to Multi Media Channels in March 2020.

Vincent Filak, a journalism professor at UW-Oshkosh and former adviser for The Advance-Titan student newspaper, has been rallying support this week to oppose restrictions the school has been accused of placing on student media organizations.

Filak reached out to university officials following a report from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education that student journalists were required to get approval to interview any university employees. He has detailed his exchanges on his blog, offered his views on how to resolve the issue and shared an update Thursday following a meeting between the newspaper and university officials.

Ten years after teaching English at a university in Ukraine, Katelyn Ferral, an investigative journalist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has returned to eastern Europe to report on Russia's invasion of the country.

WATCH: Katelyn Ferral talks to Milwaukee PBS about reporting from the Poland-Ukraine border

Based in Poland, Ferral's coverage has focused primarily on Ukrainian refugees who have fled the country for Poland. She also has written about those who are returning to the country, primarily to join the fight against Russia.

Forum Communications Co., parent company of the Superior Telegram, has pledged a $5,000 donation to 20 Minutes, a newspaper in Kyiv, Ukraine. Since the war began, 20 Minutes has been forced to suspend printing its newspaper and switch exclusively to online publishing in order to keep its community informed.

RELATED: What you can do to help save Ukraine from a looming news apocalypse

Forum has worked with the Ukrainian newspaper in the past. In early 2020, staff from the two organizations began meeting to share ideas on how to produce the best journalism for their respective readers. 

The Washington Island Observer has established a grant program in honor of former managing editor Mary Marik, who died on Dec. 27.

The Mary Marik Community Grant Program will recognize Washington Island nonprofits that make it "a better place to live, work and visit." Two to three grant recipients will be awarded $1,000 annually.