Wisconsin Watchdog may be in financial trouble
But conservative website says it will continue
The conservative website Wisconsin Watchdog, which led the attack on recent John Doe investigations targeting Gov. Scott Walker, may be in financial trouble.
A former reporter for the website, which is run by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, tweeted that it and the Franklin Center are closing.
“The Franklin Center is shutting down,” James Wigderson, who covered education, tweeted early Friday.
That was a follow-up to his previous tweet from Thursday night that read, ‘”Email account closed. And with that, Watchdog.org shall publish no more.”
But a Franklin Center spokeswoman said in a statement that the center and Watchdog.org will continue.
“The Franklin Center has not shut down; it continues to operate and we expect growth as we progress through 2017,” said Franklin Center spokeswoman Laurel Patrick, who previously worked for Walker. “In order to achieve this growth, it is undergoing a reorganization.”
She said that the center had appointed new leadership. John Tillman, the CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, has been named the new chairman, and Chris Krug, the publisher and general manager of the Illinois News Network and Illinois Radio Network, has been named president, Patrick said.
Krug replaces Nicole Neily, who was in the job for only a year.
“Watchdog.org will continue, and we are committed to growing that brand,” Patrick said. “The new management team will be working with all current and former employees in the coming week to find the right path forward for each person and Franklin.”
Wigderson declined further comment.
Wisconsin Watchdog Bureau Chief M.D. Kittle could not be reached for comment. His office number was not in service Friday, and he did not respond to a message left on his cellphone.
On Thursday, Wisconsin Watchdog tweeted: “God bless. #wiright”
The conservative news organization, which opened a Capitol bureau in Madison in 2011, said it would investigate news overlooked by mainstream news outlets. It was a vocal critic of the John Doe investigations led by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm into the Republican governor and conservative political groups, having published more than 350 stories on the probes.
At its height, the Franklin Center had reporters in more than three dozen states, asserting that it was trying to step into the void left by the declining staffs of mainstream media outlets. In 2015, the nonprofit organization had an overall budget of $8.8 million, up from $1.7 million when it was created in 2009 by a former executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party, according to federal filings.
But the Franklin Center’s website indicates that this year it was down to running operations in just six states — Wisconsin, Vermont, Florida, Mississippi, Ohio and Arizona. The Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation has helped fund the Wisconsin bureau, having donated nearly $800,000 to the Franklin Center since 2010, including $180,000 in the past two years.