Rep. Brienne Brown, a first-term Democrat from Whitewater in the state Legislature, worked as a journalist some 25 years ago. She saw firsthand how low pay and long hours pushed experienced talent out of the industry and into higher-paying marketing and communications gigs. “I started understanding that journalists are saints,” she says in a phone interview. “They don’t get paid much and they work their butts off, often in the middle of the night.”

When it surfaced last fall that WisconsinEye, the nonprofit that provides unedited broadcast coverage of the state Capitol, was running out of money and would go dark, Brown began looking into how the state could help shore up struggling news organizations that provide vital information to communities around the state.

She teamed up with Sen. Mark Spreitzer, a Democrat from Beloit, and in March the two introduced a packet of bills that would, among other things, establish a consortium in charge of dispersing grant funding to Wisconsin media outlets. The bills did not move forward.

Brown says the legislation was based on research and recommendations from staff in her and Spreitzer’s office. She also worked with the Legislative Reference Bureau, and then with the Legislative Fiscal Bureau to come up with a fiscal note for the bills. What she didn’t do, she acknowledges, was consult with people working in the trenches.

“I didn’t talk to a whole lot of journalists,” she admits. “I felt like I was coming from a pretty solid place personally.” She pledges to welcome input from journalists as she continues to advocate for these measures.

Brown’s oversight is understandable. Let’s face it: Journalists are not usually at the table, hashing out policy. We report on issues and bills, but traditionally have not been involved in drafting legislation or lobbying.

But that is changing. Local news — a public good if there ever was one — needs support and those who know the business best are increasingly being called on to advocate for solutions.

Media Power Collaborative, a project of Free Press (a group launched 25 years ago by Madison journalist John Nichols and the recently deceased journalism professor Bob McChesney), is now working in Wisconsin to ensure that relevant voices are heard as lawmakers seek to support local news.

Sarah Stone, who oversees Free Press’ civic media strategy, describes her group’s work as “building coalitions of civic media leaders, independent journalists, and community organizations that benefit from the work those outlets are doing” and making “sure they’re included in those conversations and have a seat at the table.”

The group turned its attention to Wisconsin in 2024, when Rep. Jimmy Anderson, a Democrat from Fitchburg who has since left the state Legislature, introduced a packet of bills aimed at supporting local news. Concern about people’s “media diets,” he told me at the time, had sent him on a quest to find solutions.

His ambitious package included the creation of a nonprofit board to provide grants to local news operations, starting with an appropriation of roughly $25 million, along with a subscription tax credit and the launch of a journalism fellowship program. The bills never went anywhere but Free Press’ Media Power Collaborative was intrigued. Free Press had recently worked with organizers in New Jersey to pass groundbreaking legislation to create the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium; to date, the group has invested more than $12 million in public funds in local news outlets.

“That was really a grassroots movement,” says Stone in a phone interview. “That led us to see how we could plant these seeds in other states.”

Arin Anderson, a Milwaukee native, was hired by Free Press in 2025 to help build a “statewide media reform coalition” in Wisconsin. Shortly after, she emailed newsroom leaders (including me) and embarked, with Stone, on a statewide listening tour to meet with journalists working in urban and rural areas, including La Crosse, Madison, Eau Claire, Menomonie, Milwaukee and Viroqua. They also met with lawmakers and civic and service organizations. 

The goal, says Anderson, was to learn about newsroom challenges and the information needs of local communities. She wrote about the experience in a Dec. 4, 2025, blog post under the headline, “Despite the efforts of hardworking journalists, Wisconsin’s local news infrastructure is in dire need of support.”

Anderson organized a group call in December with journalists for an informal conversation about policy proposals and to see “how we can work together to support local news and information across the state and in our communities.”

And she began to track relevant bills, including anti-SLAPP legislation. In December, when Republicans in the state Legislature introduced their own version of this legislation — which would protect journalists, activists and the general public from lawsuits designed to silence critics — Anderson mobilized support. The bill passed the Assembly and looked like it might prevail in the Senate as well. She sent emails asking us to call our own representatives to urge their support of the legislation and to sign on to a letter delivered to state Senate lawmakers.

I admit, I had to give that request a bit of thought. Like many other journalists, who are more used to observing than participating, advocating for legislation is new territory for us. But it’s not the first time we’ve been asked.

In 2021 there was bipartisan support in Congress for legislation that would have been a game-changer for local media outlets like Isthmus — a substantial payroll tax credit tucked into President Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better social spending package. Under the bill, local publications would receive a refundable payroll tax credit up to $25,000 for each journalist on staff; after the first year, publications could receive up to $15,000 per local journalist.

At the time, there was a lot of chatter about the legislation on journalism listservs, including the one run by the Institute for Nonprofit News, a group we belong to. We were all being urged to advocate for this important measure by reaching out to our elected reps. The president of INN at the time, Sue Cross, addressed the elephant in the room.

“As nonpartisan nonprofits, several of you have asked whether it’s possible and appropriate under IRS guidelines to recommend or seek action on this legislation,” she wrote in an email. “The answer is yes [on] both counts.” She linked to the relevant IRS language.

As it happened, I did not reach out to elected leaders at the time; looking back, I wish I had. That payroll tax credit would have provided much needed support especially as we were a new nonprofit at the time. The measure was eventually stripped from the infrastructure bill.

When Anderson asked for signatories in support of the anti-SLAPP legislation, I did sign on, joining colleagues from Volume One, Wisconsin Watch and The Badger Project, among others.

Brown says she plans to pursue continued efforts to support local journalism, and has some ideas for two to three additional initiatives. She declined to share early details but says she would love to collaborate more with journalists moving forward. I’m ready.