UpNorthNews is your new source for stories on Wisconsin’s most important issues and most interesting people.
Building this newsroom is a labor of love for our team of experienced Wisconsin journalists. We are unabashed in our love of our state’s quality of life, its beautiful resources, and our shared expectations for honesty, kindness, and service.
Who builds a newsroom from scratch anymore? I’ll tell you: journalists who are ready to trade their ink barrels for handheld devices in order to bring you the stories that aren’t getting told as often as they should in this ever-changing media landscape. We’ve traded the old system of just three TV channels for an infinite number of options on a panoply of devices, and yet coverage of state and local issues is dwindling as newspapers and broadcasters cut costs.
This loss of state and local coverage creates a vacuum— one too easily filled by politicians and charlatans spreading misinformation and disinformation. Cynicism goes up and civic participation goes down when society cannot see itself in stories about our shared challenges and opportunities. When our public conversations lose these common threads –and even a common standard for truth and ethics in our public officials– democracy loses its lifeblood: the well-informed voter.
This should matter not only to progressives, but to conservatives and independents who know America does its best work after healthy, fact-based, and respectful conversations based in part on healthy news reporting and not the online rumor mill.
The antidote to bad media and declining coverage isn’t anything radical. It’s simply rebuilding state and local news coverage of important stories, and setting the record straight.
We’re doing our part by giving you Wisconsin’s new digital newspaper with none of the lazy false equivalency that plagues so much of today’s media. UpNorthNews is part of Courier Newsroom, a growing, progressive network of state-based digital news outlets. Courier Newsroom’s mission is to invest in local journalism across the country to build a more informed and engaged electorate—and a healthier democracy.
You’ll find us here 24/7 on our website, but you’ll also see our posts and videos in your social media feeds, like Facebook and Twitter. And our morning email newsletter will get you up to date almost as early as the cows are getting up and at ‘em. America is looking up north for news on trends and conversations. We’ll follow it all and bring you the stories you’ll want to see and share. Send us your feedback, and thanks for signing up.
Pat Kreitlow A longtime resident on Lake Wissota near Chippewa Falls, Pat was a familiar presence on radio and TV stations in western Wisconsin before serving in the state Legislature. As Regional Editorial Director, Pat oversees Courier Newsroom outlets in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
