October 31, 2012

Hi Reader,
I was a little nervous in April 2011, when I signed a contract with MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization, creating funding for the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism’s Money and Politics Project.

Under that contract, the Center’s coverage of the influence of money on politics and policymaking would need to attract an audience of 200,000 over the next 12 months.

Or the Center wouldn’t receive $50,000 from MapLight in our partnership, which was supported by the Open Society Institute.

But my worries were short-lived.

Our new hire, award-winning journalist Bill Lueders, who left Isthmus, a Madison weekly, to head up the project, immediately began producing great investigative reports and weekly Money and Politics columns. We hit the 200,000 goal in less than two months.

Where are we now?

Using conservative methods, we estimate that the Center’s Money and Politics Project has reached a total audience of nearly six million people since April 2011.

There’s more:

• The Money and Politics Project coverage has been picked up online more than 400 times by media and non-news websites, reaching an estimated three million people through outlets including the Center for Public Integrity and Huffington Post.

• The Center has produced more than 10 major investigative Money and Politics reports. These have been picked up or cited more than 290 times by at least 140 news organizations. The stories have reached an estimated newspaper audience of one million people.

• Bill’s columns have been picked up or cited more than 470 times by at least 75 news organizations in Wisconsin and across the nation. Through Wisconsin newspapers, his columns have reached an estimated audience of nearly 1.8 million people.

Assisted by our entire staff, Bill continues to produce terrific examinations of the role of money in politics and policymaking, including the recent reports highlighted in today’s newsletter.

We’re already planning coverage well beyond the Nov. 6 elections, to explore the decisions and policies of whoever is in power -- a role that’s essential to our democracy.

Thanks for reading!

Andy Hall
Executive Director
ahall@wisconsinwatch.org
608-262-3642
 

P.S. View a map of a sample of Money and Politics column pickups here.

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