The 80th annual National Newspaper Week, a celebration of the impact newspapers have in their communities, will be observed Oct. 4-10. This year’s theme is “America Needs Journalists.”
The annual effort, which makes content available to newspapers nationwide, is sponsored by Newspaper Association Managers, Inc., a consortium of North American trade associations representing the industry.
As contest season approaches, the WNA is asking members to consider volunteering to be a judge for our partners at the Texas Press Association.
TPA needs at least 60 WNA members to sign up by Sept. 25 to help judge their contest. All judging will be done online and is scheduled to begin Oct. 19.
Nearly five months after Isthmus announced in March it was shutting down indefinitely due to the pandemic, the Madison alternative weekly has decided to become a nonprofit news organization.
While the details of the transition to nonprofit status remain uncertain, it will allow Isthmus to seek funding in ways it could not previously, such as foundation grants and tax-deductible donations from readers and local businesses.
• RELATED: WNA Foundation announces Wisconsin Community News Fund
Established three years before Wisconsin became a state, The (Janesville) Gazette on Friday marked the 175th anniversary of its first issue, printed Aug. 14, 1845.
In recognition of Friday’s anniversary, the newspaper published a timeline of major events in its history, along with several historical photos of past staff, newsrooms and printing operations.
Beginning with Thursday’s issue, subscribers to Buffalo County’s three weeklies will receive a newly merged newspaper, the Buffalo County News.
The newspapers last week announced the (Alma) Buffalo County Journal, Mondovi Herald-News and Cochrane-Fountain City Recorder would be merged to form one newspaper serving the entire county. All three newspapers shared the same parent company, Media One.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the National Press Photographers Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists are offering offering makeup trainings for anyone who missed their sessions last week on the 2020 Democratic National Convention and other national political events.
The virtual training sessions will be hosted on Zoom on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Report for America applications are now open for news organizations interested in hosting emerging journalists for up to three years, beginning next June.
The national service places talented journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. The program recruits journalists and pays half the salary, up to $20,000. The other half is split between the host news organization and local donors.
WNA members are encouraged to contact their lawmakers and ask them to sign on as a co-sponsor of the Local Journalism Sustainability Act.
The bipartisan legislation provides direct financial incentives to support local journalism. Proposed tax credits include credit for local newspaper subscriptions, payroll credit for compensation of journalists and credit for advertising in local newspapers and local media.
The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and the Center for Journalism Ethics at UW-Madison are partnering on a project to support election integrity this fall, the organizations have announced.
The effort, supported by $83,000 in funding from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, will focus on developing election integrity resource kits for citizens and journalists in addition to investigative reporting on voting issues in Wisconsin. Howard Hardee, a former Wisconsin State Journal reporter and current local news fellow at First Draft News, will be the lead reporter on the project.
The National Newspaper Association is seeking judges for its 2020 Better Newspaper Editorial Contest & Better Newspaper Advertising Contest.
All judging is done online and is user-friendly. Judges will be assigned early July and the deadline for judging will be late July.