Convention Schedule

Session Schedule
Session Speakers

Thursday, March 11, 2027

5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. – Capitol Ballroom

  • Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame Banquet: Created in 2001 to honor visionaries and innovators in the Wisconsin newspaper industry, the Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame recognizes both living and deceased individuals with induction. Must register to attend banquet.

Hall of Fame nominations are open to anyone, living or deceased, who has contributed above and beyond the call of duty to newspapers and newspapering in Wisconsin. This includes publishers, editors, reporters, photographers or any other newspaper personnel with significant contributions to the newspaper industry. 

Friday, March 12, 2027

8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. – Registration and continental breakfast available to all convention attendees

9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. – University ABCD

  • How We Doubled Our Subscription Price and Lived to Tell the Tale (Joey and Lindsey Young, co-publishers of Kansas Publishing Venture)
    • About three years ago, Joey and Lindsey Young, co-publishers of Kansas Publishing Ventures in south central Kansas, put their company in the hands of three university researchers and took the plunge to try new ideas for revenue with their flagship community weekly, Harvey County Now. Hear all about the experiment, how these ideas transformed their business in unexpected ways and how you can use what they learned in your own newsroom.

9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. – Senate

  • Student Editor Panel (student editors to be named)
    • The panel will discuss how they lead their staffs, with a focus on:
      • Strategies for leading a newspaper team and recruiting staff
      • Who is your content for: students or a wider audience? How do you adapt the content for these audiences?
      • What are your strategies for promoting your newspapers and getting people to read the content, both in print and online?

10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. University ABCD

  • Interviewing Skills for New Reporters (Joey and Lindsey Young, co-publishers of Kansas Publishing Venture)
    • It’s just asking questions. How hard can interviewing somebody really be? As it turns out, there is a definite art to interviewing—from asking the right questions to handling sensitive topics, hostile sources and everything in between. Lindsey and Joey Young, owners of three community newspapers in south central Kansas will explore the artistry behind a really good interview, how to prepare, how to follow up and how to handle those tough-to-deal-with situations we will all inevitably find ourselves in.

10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Senate

11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. – Capitol Ballroom

  • Branen Family Student Luncheon
    • WNA Foundation will celebrate Wisconsin’s outstanding student journalists, announcing the winners in its college and high school Better NewsMedia Contests.

1:00 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. – Conference Room I

  • JEA Advisors Meeting

1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. – University ABCD

  • Legislative Update
    • Mark Graul – Arena Strategy Group, LLC
    • Beth Bennett – WNA

1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. – Senate

  • Hollywood in Your Hand explores what really makes video work—from the basics of getting better images and sound out of the phone in your pocket to the much bigger questions of story, creativity and keeping an audience interested. (Robert Jarzen)
    • Whether you shoot video every day or occasionally wonder what half those little icons on your camera screen actually do, Robert breaks down what decades of filmmaking, advertising and storytelling have taught him about creating video that gets noticed—and keeps people watching. He’ll share practical techniques for making stronger creative choices, from what to capture and how to frame it to using movement, sound, pacing and editing to tell a more compelling story.
    • Jarzen will explore the difference between simply recording something and creating a piece of content that connects with an audience. He’ll share things he’s learned from successes, failures, ridiculously small budgets and more hours staring at editing timelines than any healthy person probably should. 

3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. – University ABCD

  • Legal update: defamation, public notice, open meetings and FOIA
    • Max Lenz and Brian Spahn – Godfrey & Kahn
    • Beth Bennett – WNA

3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. – Senate

4:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. – University ABCD

  • Annual Meeting
    • WNA members will hold a brief meeting, during which new officers will be elected. All are welcome and WNA members are especially encouraged to attend.

5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. – Capitol Ballroom

  • Cocktail Reception
    • Raise a glass with friends and colleagues, relax, and recap the day’s events before attending the Hall of Fame banquet. The cocktail reception is open to all attendees of convention and those attending the banquet

6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. – Capitol Ballroom

  • Better NewsMedia Contest Awards Banquet
    • The Wisconsin NewsMedia Association Foundation salutes the achievements of Wisconsin newspapers. We’ll showcase the finest work of Wisconsin’s photographers, honor the industy’s veterans we lost in 2026, and celebrate the winners of our Better NewsMedia Contest, Best of Division, and the Daily and Weekly Newspapers of the Year.