Reading Time: 3 minutes

Wisconsin Watch is seeking a resourceful, agile and detail-oriented executive assistant to support the executive function. Reporting to our CEO, this role will ensure smooth project execution, effective communication and timely delivery of administrative functions. This role requires exceptional organizational skills, discretion, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a mission-driven environment.

About Wisconsin Watch

Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit news company providing trustworthy reporting that investigates problems, explores solutions and serves the public. Our mission is to strengthen the quality of community life and self-government in Wisconsin by providing people with the knowledge they need to navigate their lives, drive forward solutions and hold those with power accountable. We pursue the truth through accurate, fair, independent, rigorous, nonpartisan reporting. We value transparency, collaboration, innovation and a spirit of public service. These priorities guide our investigations, which expose wrongdoing and deficiencies, explore solutions to problems and bear witness to those in vulnerable circumstances. 

Duties and responsibilities

Executive support (50%)

• Manage the executive director’s calendar, appointments, travel arrangements, and correspondence.
• Prepare and edit correspondence, communications, presentations, and other documents.
• Conduct research, compile data and prepare reports for internal and external audiences.
• Act as a liaison between the executive director and internal/external stakeholders.
• Assist with grant reporting, donor communications and event coordination as needed.
• Handle confidential information with discretion and professionalism.

Board liaison (20%)

• Serve as the main point of contact between the Board of Directors and the executive director.
• Coordinate and schedule board and committee meetings, including logistics, venue and technology.
• Prepare, distribute and archive board meeting materials (agendas, minutes, reports, resolutions).
• Track board member terms, attendance and compliance with bylaws and policies.
• Support board recruitment, onboarding and orientation processes.
• Maintain up-to-date records for all board-related documents.

Operational support & team development (20%)

• Contribute to administrative process enhancements and participate in team-based problem-solving.
• Support special projects across departments, including staff onboarding, process automation or audits.
• Assist with internal initiatives that drive professional development and organizational culture.
• Plan internal meeting agendas; facilitate internal meetings as needed.
• Support physical and virtual mail procurement and routing. 
• Participate in ongoing training and knowledge sharing.

Quality assurance & process compliance (10%)

• Ensure data integrity and adherence to firm standards in documentation and communication.
• Monitor task queues and prioritize workflow to meet project deadlines.
• Participate in internal meetings and contribute to operational improvement efforts.
• Stay current on policies, procedures and compliance requirements relevant to the organization.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in an executive support role, preferably in a nonprofit setting.
• Experience working with boards of directors or senior leadership teams.
• Strong organizational and time management skills with attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to handle confidential and sensitive information with discretion.
• Commitment to the mission, values and goals of the organization.
• Possesses exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrates a proactive, problem-solving mindset with a focus on outcomes.
• Is highly organized, detail-oriented and capable of juggling multiple priorities.
• Is familiar and comfortable with various technologies, from Google Workspace (Sheets, Docs, etc.) and CRMs to social platforms, ensuring smooth execution of tasks and communication across different tools.

Location: The executive assistant will be located in Wisconsin, preferably in the greater Madison or Milwaukee areas.

Status, salary and benefits: 

• Full-time, hybrid position. 
• Salary range: $40,000 – $65,000. 
• 5 weeks of vacation, retirement fund contribution, paid sick days, paid family and caregiver leave, subsidized medical and dental premiums, vision coverage, and more.

Final salary offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise and location.

Deadline: Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. For best consideration, apply by July 14, 2025.

To apply: Please submit your resume in this application form and answer each of these three questions in 50 words or less.

• Why are you interested in joining our team?
• Why are you qualified for this job?
• Is there anything else we should know about you?

If you’d like to chat about the job before applying, contact Lauren Fuhrmann at lfuhrmann@wisconsinwatch.org.

Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities. We are an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law.

Wisconsin Watch seeks executive assistant is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit newsroom that uses journalism to make the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected, seeks an audience and social media producer to help develop and execute our strategy for “meeting people where they are” – ensuring that our journalism serves audiences who are less engaged with legacy news formats.

The producer will manage the development, design and distribution of multimedia journalism through social media channels and will play a key role in shaping how our newsrooms think about, understand and meet the needs of diverse audiences across Wisconsin. The right candidate will be a strong communicator and a curious, critical observer of the changing media landscape. The producer will be excited by the challenges of “interpreting” news and information into different formats and take an organized and methodical approach to testing assumptions and developing insights. 

The producer will collaborate with editorial and business colleagues in Milwaukee, Madison and northeast Wisconsin and must live within commuting distance of one or more of these areas.

Job duties

The audience and social media producer will:

• Contribute to our audience growth by developing and executing platform-specific content strategies to reach people who are less engaged with legacy news formats.

• Work with the editors of Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service to fully integrate social media into the editorial planning process.

• Collaborate with editors, reporters and community ambassadors to plan and execute social media outreach and distribution as part of wider audience development strategies for specific beats and projects.

• Collaborate with beat reporters to “interpret” long-form articles and investigations for lower literacy audiences and collaborate with visual journalists to develop original and repackaged reporting for social media audiences and platforms.

• Collect, monitor and analyze data from a variety of sources to develop insights about the relevance, resonance and impact of our journalism, and communicate these insights to journalists and editors to help keep editorial priorities aligned with audience needs.

• Be curious about how information-seeking behaviors are evolving alongside a constantly changing media landscape – and be ready to bring observations and insights to discussions about our wider editorial and business strategies.

Required qualifications: The ideal candidate will bring a public service mindset and a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisan journalism ethics, including a commitment to abide by Wisconsin Watch’s ethics policies. 

More specifically, we’re looking for a multimedia producer who: 

• Has experience building audiences on social media platforms.
• Has excellent communication skills and a keen eye for tone and detail.
• Has visual and design skills (e.g., Canva, Flourish and app-based video editors).
• Understands how to use data to develop a news product or service.
• Can confidently prioritize and manage multiple projects and deadlines.

We know that there will be great candidates who might not check all these boxes or who hold important skills we haven’t listed. Don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities.

Salary and benefits: The salary range is $45,000 – $55,000 depending on experience. 

Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, and higher compensation may be available for someone with advanced skills and/or experience. Wisconsin Watch offers competitive benefits, including generous vacation (five weeks), a retirement fund contribution, paid sick days, paid family and caregiver leave, subsidized medical and dental premiums, vision coverage, and more.

Deadline: For best consideration, apply by June 27.

To apply: Please submit a PDF of your resume and answer some brief questions in this application form.

1. How do you use social media and how has that changed over the past several years? 
2. What does your daily news diet look like and how has that changed over time? 
3. Please provide 2-3 examples of news organizations, independent journalists or influencers who you think are successfully leveraging social media or other non-traditional formats or channels to deliver news and information. Briefly describe why you chose these examples.

If you’d like to chat about the job before applying, contact Cecilia Dobbs, director of audience development, at cdobbs@wisconsinwatch.org.

Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. We are an equal-opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law.

About Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Founded in 2009, Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing nonpartisan journalism that makes the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected. We believe that access to local representative news is critical to a healthy democracy and to finding solutions to the most pressing problems of everyday life. Under the Wisconsin Watch umbrella, we have three independent news divisions: a statewide investigative newsroom, a regional collaboration in northeast Wisconsin called the NEW News Lab and the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS). All three divisions maintain their unique reporting areas and together are positioned to grow and serve our communities with greater efficiency and impact.

NNS was founded in 2011 as a mission-driven newsroom that reports on and celebrates Milwaukee’s central city neighborhoods, specifically the city’s Black and Latinx communities. Through NNS’ reporting, website, e-newsletters and News414 texting service, we cover the ordinary people who do extraordinary things, connect readers with resources and serve as a watchdog for our audience. NNS, formerly a part of Marquette University, and Wisconsin Watch have a long history of collaboration. In 2024, NNS moved its administrative home and merged under the Wisconsin Watch umbrella. Together, Wisconsin Watch’s statewide team and NNS’ reporters collaborate to produce statewide investigative stories while highlighting issues impacting communities in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin Watch seeks audience and social media producer is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit news organization that uses journalism to make Wisconsin communities strong, informed and connected, seeks a data investigative reporter to expand our capacity to provide vital evidence and context to our reporting.

Working with other journalists in our statewide and Milwaukee newsrooms, you will use data to help us better understand Wisconsin communities and hold leaders to account. We believe that access to truthful local news is critical to a healthy democracy and to finding solutions to the most pressing problems of everyday life.

Job duties

Reporting to the managing editor, you will: 

• Find, compile and clean data that powers our journalism.
• Plan and execute quantitative analyses — and interpret results — to support stories and visualizations.
• Design and build creative static and interactive graphics to visualize findings.   
• Pitch and develop your own stories with support from editors. 
• Help other journalists advance their data journalism skills, teaching and encouraging best practices across the newsrooms. 

At Wisconsin Watch we make sure that we are producing quality journalism and give our reporters the time they need to make sure the job is done well. Rather than chasing clicks, we measure success through the impact we deliver to those we serve.

Required qualifications: The ideal candidate will bring a public service mindset and a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisan journalism ethics, including a commitment to abide by Wisconsin Watch’s ethics policies. More specifically, we’re looking for a reporter who: 

• Has worked on data projects in a newsroom or has performed statistical analysis in a  research setting. 
• Demonstrates ability to analyze data in Python, R, SQL or a similar high-level language.
• Has experience with off-the-shelf data visualization tools like Datawrapper or Flourish.
• Demonstrates ability to formulate compelling story pitches to editors. 
• Aches to report and support stories that explore solutions to challenges. 
• Has experience with or ideas about the many ways newsrooms can inform the public.
• Has experience working with others. Wisconsin Watch is a deeply collaborative organization. Our journalists frequently team up with each other or with colleagues at other news outlets to maximize the potential impact of our reporting. 

Bonus skills:

• Familiarity with Wisconsin, its history and its politics. 
• Beat reporting experience.
• Spanish-language proficiency.

Don’t check off every box in the requirements listed above? Please apply anyway! Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to building an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible workplace that fosters a sense of belonging – so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings!

Location: The reporter must be located in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Watch is a statewide news organization with staff based in Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay.  

Salary and benefits: The salary range is $50,000-$70,000. Benefits include five weeks of vacation; paid sick leave and family and caregiver leave; 75% reimbursement for silver-tier health and dental insurance on the federal exchange; 100% vision insurance coverage; $100 per paycheck automatic employer contribution to a 403(b) retirement plan (no match required) after 90 days.

Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, and higher compensation may be available for someone with advanced skills and/or experience.

Deadline: Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. For best consideration, apply by June 2.

To apply: Please submit a single PDF of your resume and work samples and answer some brief questions in this application form. If you’d like to chat about the job before applying, contact Managing Editor Jim Malewitz at jmalewitz@wisconsinwatch.org.

Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities. We are an equal-opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law.

About Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Founded in 2009, Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing independent, nonpartisan journalism that makes the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected. We believe that access to truthful local news is critical to a healthy democracy and to finding solutions to the most pressing problems of everyday life. Under the Wisconsin Watch umbrella, we have multiple news departments including a statewide investigative and explanatory projects team, a Capitol bureau, a regional collaboration in northeast Wisconsin called the NEW News Lab, and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS). 

NNS was founded in 2011 as a mission-driven newsroom that reports on and celebrates Milwaukee’s central city neighborhoods. Through its reporting, website, e-newsletters and News414 texting service, NNS covers ordinary people who do extraordinary things, connects readers with resources and serves as a watchdog for their neighbors. Together, Wisconsin Watch’s state team and NNS reporters collaborate to produce solutions-oriented investigative and explanatory stories highlighting issues affecting communities in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin Watch seeks data investigative reporter is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit newsroom that uses journalism to make the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected, seeks a senior reporter to lead our newsroom’s state government coverage. 

The successful candidate will be responsible for producing regular coverage of state government policy and politics with a premium on explaining how they affect the public and how citizens can stay in charge of their government. Coverage will include regular stories that provide context and deepen understanding about state government activities, explain what elected representatives are up to for areas of the state with no Capitol coverage, and deliver high-impact investigative and explanatory solutions. A top-tier candidate will already have a following on social media and be comfortable discussing Wisconsin politics on radio, TV and podcasts and in other web-based formats. Our aim is to deliver important state government news and knowledge to people through their preferred format and channels, whether that’s shared social videos, concise newsletter summaries or compelling narratives.

Job duties

The statehouse reporter will: 

• Produce weekly news and analysis content for the Monday newsletter Forward.
• Produce substantive investigations that examine societal problems and explore solutions.
• Participate in weekly planning meetings to map out short- and long-term coverage plans.
• Mentor interns and other reporters in state government reporting.
• Engage in opportunities to share reporting with media partners.
• Report to state editor Matthew DeFour as part of a team with two other reporters and interns.

Required qualifications: The ideal candidate will bring a public service mindset and a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisan journalism ethics, including a commitment to abide by Wisconsin Watch’s ethics policies. 

More specifically, we’re looking for a reporter who: 

• Has covered government and shown the ability to develop sources, find important stories and inform the public about what their elected representatives are up to.
• Brings a nimble, innovative mindset — Wisconsin Watch is exploring the frontiers of nonprofit journalism, and we want reporters who bring ideas about how to grow our audience and deliver meaningful information to the people who need it most.
• Is committed to nonpartisan reporting focused on identifying problems as well as best-practice solutions.

Key bonus skills:

• Data reporting expertise.
• Spanish language fluency.
• Experience with audio and video storytelling.

Location: The reporter will be based in Madison with desks in both the Capitol press room and our Wisconsin Watch newsroom in Madison.

Salary and benefits: The annual salary range is $60,000-$80,000. Benefits include five weeks of vacation; paid sick leave and family and caregiver leave; 75% reimbursement for silver-tier health and dental insurance on the federal exchange; 100% vision insurance coverage; $100 per paycheck automatic employer contribution to a 403(b) retirement plan (no match required).

Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors and higher compensation may be available for someone with advanced skills and/or experience.

Deadline: May 30, 2025

To apply: Please submit a PDF of your resume, work samples and answer some brief questions in this application form. If you’d like to chat about the job before applying, contact Hiring Manager Matthew DeFour at mdefour@wisconsinwatch.org.

Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. We are an equal-opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law.

About Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Founded in 2009, Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing independent, nonpartisan journalism that makes the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected. We believe that access to truthful local news is critical to a healthy democracy and to finding solutions to the most pressing problems of everyday life. Under the Wisconsin Watch umbrella, we have multiple news departments including a statewide investigative and explanatory projects team, a Capitol bureau, a regional collaboration in northeast Wisconsin called the NEW News Lab, and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS). 

NNS was founded in 2011 as a mission-driven newsroom that reports on and celebrates Milwaukee’s central city neighborhoods. Through its reporting, website, e-newsletters and News414 texting service, NNS covers ordinary people who do extraordinary things, connects readers with resources and serves as a watchdog for their neighbors. Together, Wisconsin Watch’s state team and NNS reporters collaborate to produce solutions-oriented investigative and explanatory stories highlighting issues affecting communities in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin Watch seeks experienced statehouse reporter is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Wisconsin Watch seeks a resourceful and ambitious philanthropy officer to support our fund development work in southeastern Wisconsin and the greater Milwaukee area.

The philanthropy officer will be a key member of the philanthropy team, responsible for cultivating and expanding our charitable support. This role will focus on donor cultivation and growing a regionally based portfolio. The right candidate will be effective in building and maintaining relationships with individual donors, foundations and corporate foundations and collaborating with the philanthropy team on fundraising campaigns and stewardship events. The philanthropy officer will play a critical role in ensuring our organization can continue producing excellent nonpartisan, solutions-oriented journalism that strengthens the communities we serve.

Duties and responsibilities

• Relationship and portfolio development:
  • Build and manage a regionally based portfolio of donors. 
  • Prospect identification: Research and identify potential major donors who have a passion for our work and have the capacity to make significant gifts.
  • Relationship building: Collaborate with the director of philanthropy, CEO and Milwaukee NNS executive director to craft funder outreach, write personalized communication and conduct in-person meetings. Steward donors and maintain relationships.
  • Gift solicitation: Approach qualified donors to solicit gifts, effectively articulating the impact of our work and how it overlaps with the donor’s passions.
  • Collaborate internally with business and editorial staff to craft meaningful donor interactions and proposals. 
  • Act as an ambassador to southeastern Wisc0nsin, attending relevant community events and networking opportunities.
  • Meet established fundraising goals to support organizational needs.

• Systems:
  • Maintain best practice standards when it comes to record keeping, including logging contact reports to the donor database/CRM.
  • Collaborate with the associate director of philanthropy to analyze weekly gift reports, customize acknowledgement copy and route letters for approvals and signatures.
  • Draft acknowledgment letter templates and refresh/update content on a biannual basis.
  • Partner with the business team on database policies and best practices in record keeping.

• Other duties:
  • Track key initiatives, monitor deadlines and coordinate with teams to ensure the timely execution of goals.
  • Perform other major donor/development activities as may be required (i.e. tours, public speaking or spokesperson activities).
  • Collaborate with the philanthropy team on stewardship event execution.
  • Serve as a community ambassador/spokesperson as needed.
  • Support proposal development and grant writing as needed.

Qualifications

• Excels at relationship building and connecting impact-driven missions with individual passions.
• Has experience with high-touch fundraising and gift solicitation.
• Displays a desire to work with culturally diverse populations using a compassionate, collaborative and respectful approach.
• Responsive, tactful and professional, possessing a relationship-centric mindset.
• Thrives in high-pressure environments and remains adaptable amid changing priorities.
• Demonstrates a proactive, creative, problem-solving mindset with a focus on outcomes. Demonstrates a commitment to looking for solutions and opportunities for collaboration.
• Is highly organized, detail-oriented and capable of juggling multiple priorities.
• Is familiar and comfortable with various technologies, from Google Workspace (Sheets, Docs, etc.) and CRMs to social platforms, ensuring smooth execution of tasks and communication across different tools.

Preferred qualifications:

• 5+ years’ experience in nonprofit fundraising, stewardship, donor relations, project management and/or a related area.
• Proficient in Google Suite, MS Office, Word, Excel, and Outlook.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Passion for journalism, local news, media, and/or civic engagement.

Location: The philanthropy officer will be located in southeastern Wisconsin, preferably the greater Milwaukee area.

Status, salary and benefits: 

• Full time, hybrid position. 
• Salary: $60,000 – $80,000. Final salary offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, including prior experience, expertise and location.
• 5 weeks of vacation, retirement fund contribution, paid sick days, paid family and caregiver leave, subsidized medical and dental premiums, vision coverage, and more.

Deadline: Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. For best consideration, apply by May 30, 2025.

To apply: Please submit your resume in this application form and answer each of these three questions in 50 words or less.

• Why are you interested in joining our team?
• Why are you qualified for this role?
• Is there anything else we should know about you?

If you’d like to chat about the job before applying, contact Anna January at ajanuary@wisconsinwatch.org.

Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities. We are an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law.

About Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Founded in 2009, Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to producing nonpartisan journalism that makes the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected. We believe that access to local representative news is critical to a healthy democracy and to finding solutions to the most pressing problems of everyday life. Under the Wisconsin Watch umbrella, we have three independent news divisions, a statewide investigative newsroom, a regional collaboration in northeast Wisconsin called the NEW News Lab, and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS). All three divisions maintain their unique reporting areas and together are positioned to grow and serve our communities with greater efficiency and impact.

NNS was founded in 2011 as a mission-driven newsroom that reports on and celebrates Milwaukee’s central city neighborhoods, specifically the city’s Black and Latinx communities. Through NNS’ reporting, website, e-newsletters and News414 texting service, we cover the ordinary people who do extraordinary things, connect readers with resources and serve as a watchdog for our audience. NNS, formerly a part of Marquette University, and Wisconsin Watch have a long history of collaboration. In 2024, NNS moved its administrative home and merged under the Wisconsin Watch umbrella. Together, Wisconsin Watch’s statewide team and NNS’ reporters collaborate to produce statewide investigative stories while highlighting issues impacting communities in Milwaukee. 

Wisconsin Watch seeks philanthropy officer for southeastern Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit newsroom that uses journalism to make the communities of Wisconsin strong, informed and connected, seeks a regional editor to launch and lead our northeast Wisconsin bureau — covering Green Bay, Appleton, the Fox Valley and surrounding region. 

This position is ideal for someone who believes that local news should be built for people who most need information to navigate their lives and engage with their communities. The right candidate will be a mission-driven, collaborative leader with a track record of producing journalism that investigates problems, explores solutions and serves the public.  

Insights from community listening efforts and partnerships with other Wisconsin news organizations, built upon years of collaboration, will help the editor direct the high-impact, responsive coverage that residents deserve. 

Wisconsin Watch aims to strengthen the quality of community life and self-government in Wisconsin by providing people with the knowledge they need to navigate their lives, drive forward solutions and hold those with power accountable. We pursue the truth through accurate, fair, independent, rigorous, nonpartisan reporting. We share our stories freely and collaborate with other news organizations that share our independent, nonpartisan, truth-seeking values. 

Why northeast Wisconsin? 

In our broader efforts to strengthen the local news ecosystem, Wisconsin Watch is launching a bureau that will serve key information and accountability needs of northeast Wisconsin residents. The bureau will build upon the success of the NEW News Lab, a collaborative launched in 2021 that provides technology support, capacity building and funding to boost local journalism and newsrooms in the region. The collaboration’s five other partners include: WPR, FoxValley365, The Post-Crescent, Green Bay Press-Gazette and The Press Times. The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Journalism Department is an educational partner.

Job duties

The editor will: 

• Work with the managing editor and director of partnerships for northeast Wisconsin to establish and grow Wisconsin Watch’s presence in the region, playing a key role in attracting and retaining talented journalists to staff the bureau.
• Work with the director of partnerships for northeast Wisconsin and community ambassadors to understand community information and accountability needs, ensuring that residents’ perspectives shape the bureau’s coverage. This will include helping to identify strategies for meeting folks’ most important news and information needs and for “meeting those audiences where they are” in terms of information levels, preferred formats and distribution channels.
• Recruit, lead and edit reporters, overseeing the production of stories that will appear on Wisconsin Watch platforms and be distributed to news outlets across Wisconsin and the country. This may include occasional editing of reporters outside of the region when applicable. 
• Collaborate with journalists at for-profit and nonprofit news organizations in Wisconsin and across the nation.
• Represent Wisconsin Watch at community events, developing relationships with readers and supporters to ensure we stay embedded and connected in the communities we serve.
• Help launch a paid citizen observer team to watch and take notes at public meetings and hearings not covered by journalists.

Required qualifications: The ideal candidate will bring a public service mindset and a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisan journalism ethics, including a commitment to abide by Wisconsin Watch’s ethics policies. 

More specifically, we’re looking for a newsroom leader who: 

• Has at least five years of experience in public affairs journalism, including demonstrated experience in newsroom leadership — such as managing direct reports, mentoring early-career journalists or managing projects.
• Is familiar with various ways newsrooms can inform the public — from narrative investigations and features to Q&As and “how-to” explainers to visual stories, interactive graphics and social videos.
• Has demonstrated experience collaborating across and/or outside of an organization.
• Has experience in WordPress or similar content management systems.

Bonus skills:

• Has familiarity with northeast Wisconsin, its history and its politics. 
• Has experience setting strategic priorities and vision.
• Can communicate in multiple languages, particularly Spanish.

Location: This editor will be located in northeast Wisconsin. 

Salary and benefits: The salary range is $65,000-$80,000. Final offer amounts will carefully consider multiple factors, and higher compensation may be available for someone with advanced skills and/or experience. Wisconsin Watch offers competitive benefits, including generous vacation (five weeks), a retirement fund contribution, paid sick days, paid family and caregiver leave, subsidized medical and dental premiums, vision coverage, and more.

Deadline: Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. For best consideration, apply by May 6, 2025.

To apply: Please submit a PDF of your resume, work samples and answer some brief questions in this application form. If you’d like to chat about the job before applying, contact Managing Editor Jim Malewitz at jmalewitz@wisconsinwatch.org.

Wisconsin Watch is dedicated to improving our newsroom by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. We are an equal-opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or any other status protected under applicable law.

Wisconsin Watch seeks regional editor for northeast Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.