Editor’s Note: the following article was originally published in Volume One magazine on September 20th. Reprinted here with permission.
It’s no secret: Traditional media is, at best, a shifting landscape. At its worst, it’s dying out. This summer, a new report from Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News put a finer point to that not-so secret when it showed a roughly 75% decline in total journalists across the United States since 2002.
Zooming in on the Chippewa Valley, the Local Journalist Index report states about 22 local journalist equivalents in Eau Claire County; about eight in Chippewa County; and effectively zero in Dunn County. While new data, what it represents – for Dunn County, its status as a news desert – was already noticeable to residents.
About three years ago in the backroom of Menomonie’s Golden Leaf Café, a few locals talked about that noticeable gap in local media coverage. The casual get-together would later be recalled as the spark that created Menomonie News Net.
Menomonie News Net, a nonprofit media organization operated almost entirely by volunteers, delivers a weekly digital newsletter sharing hyper-local news to its subscribers – over 1,100 individuals – for free.
Though the organization’s newsletter made its debut on Nov. 20, 2024, its official ribbon-cutting event was held at the Menomonie Public Library on Sept. 9. About 30 people attended including those part of Menomonie News Net’s 12-person Advisory Board, which is made up of familiar former news media folks like Pat Eggert (Dunn County News, Eau Claire Leader-Telegram), Barbara Lyon (Dunn County News), Layne Pitt (retired Sports Information Director at UW-Stout, Dunn County News), and others.
Its structure – a nonpartisan, nonprofit media org – is unique but not entirely uncommon. (The Chicago Reader and Madison’s Isthmus are prime examples of current nonprofit, alternative publications providing print and digital news to their respective communities.)
“When I grew up, you always had a paper or community voice. Those days are kind of gone in our area. There’s a need for this kind of model – online only, citizen- or volunteer-led journalism,” Becky Kneer, co-editor of Menomonie News Net, said in a recent interview.
Kneer also pointed to similar citizen- and volunteer-powered resources in Menomonie, including Menomonie Minute and Eye on Dunn County, as additional proof of area residents rising to help meet the need.
In ideating what and where Menomonie News Net’s coverage would include, organizers held a three-part community forum called “Where’s the Local News?” in 2023 which served as a temperature-check on the wider community’s desire for local news. A community survey conducted in Spring 2024, garnering around 400 responses, informed what topics the group would cover.
Today, Menomonie News Net’s goals are threefold: Help fill the gap in local news, support citizen journalism, and increase civic involvement.
The organization’s creation is proof of a shared desire among Menomonie residents for hyper-local news, be it city and county government coverage or human interest stories. The group is hopeful donations from community members and additional grants will fuel its continued growth and increased coverage.
“My background is not in journalism but in nursing, and I’m very passionate about local news,” Kneer said. “With my background in nursing, I looked at the health of a community. If you don’t have local news, it’s tough to be a healthy, vibrant community.”
Menomonie News Net’s next digital newsletter releases on Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 11am (stories are also posted at menomonienewsnet.org). Signup is free and only requires an email address. Of course, donations are always welcome – whether in the form of financial support or lending your pen to write an article.
Keep up with and subscribe for free to Menomonie News Net online at menomonienewsnet.org.
McKenna Sherer is managing editor at Volume One, Eau Claire.