INN bestowed the honor last month in Atlanta at an awards ceremony co-emceed by INN board member Ron Smith, editor of the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, which recently merged with Wisconsin Watch.
Wisconsin Watch state bureau chief Matthew DeFour was named a finalist for INN’s Nonprofit Newcomer of the Year Award, which honors an individual who has been in the nonprofit news field for less than two years and is contributing to the success of the person’s organization through innovation.
And environmental reporter Bennet Goldstein and managing editor Jim Malewitz were also named finalists for the Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism in the medium division for Hogtied , a three-part series examining the siting of a concentrated animal feeding operation in northern Wisconsin.
“It’s humbling to be honored by an organization and its members who have given so much to us and to our country,” Andy said in accepting the top award at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. “News that INN members provide is crucial to our democracy and our way of life. It has plugged some of the massive holes left by the for-profit business model.”
Andy Hall, executive director, and Dee J. Hall, managing editor, are seen in Wisconsin Watch offices on July 20, 2021. (Narayan Mahon for Wisconsin Watch)
Andy, who retired last year after 15 years as executive director of Wisconsin Watch, recalled being among the founding members of INN in 2009, then known as the Investigative News Network. Roughly 30 members signed an “idealistic declaration” that its mission is “to aid and abet in every conceivable way individually and collectively the work and public reach of its member news organizations” and “to foster the highest quality investigative journalism and hold those in power at the local, national and international levels.”
Dee, previously managing editor at Wisconsin Watch and now editor-in-chief of Floodlight , a national investigative outlet reporting on climate issues, said INN has “become that and more for the burgeoning nonprofit news sector.” The organization has grown to more than 450 members.
Andy and Dee shared their predictions for the future of nonprofit news:
The nonprofit news industry will continue to face intensified pressures from dis- and misinformation, but journalists, particularly INN members, will adapt.
INN will play a leadership role in determining best practices.
More newsrooms will merge.
Newsrooms will continue to team up and share business and journalistic functions to maximize others’ returns on their investments.
Newsroom cuts and reorganizations will continue, affecting start-ups as well as established larger news organizations.
“At their best these changes will create newsrooms that are more representative of the communities that they cover and more adept at digging into the stories that most need to be told as we rebuild the local news ecosystem all across the nation,” Andy said.
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