Editorial: WAOW layoffs symptom of much bigger problem for everyone in Portage Co.

Without strong support from residents—and the business community—what’s left of local news will also be lost

By Brandi Makuski

In case you haven’t heard, there’s been a helluva shakeup at WAOW in Wausau.

WAOW has (had?) a solid viewership in Portage Co.; people who rely (relied?) heavily on its broadcasts that often included news from our communities. Early last week, viewers noticed a dramatic reduction in local reporting as the station switched to its “sister station in Madison” for coverage.

The “Newsline 9” moniker was casually changed to “9 News Live,” and many of the staff names associated with covering central Wisconsin had been removed from the station’s website, which we know thanks to our friends over at The Wausonian.

Longtime anchor Melissa Langbehn announced her departure on social media, and later in the week, a social media post from WAOW meteorologist Justin Loew confirmed that Langbehn, Erik Mrotek, and others were “laid off, along with most of the TV station.”

It’s a tremendous blow to the already battered local news scene responsible for covering local government, crime, and community news.

For Portage Co. news consumers who prefer print news, the scene is grim. The decline of the local Gannett publications (Stevens Point Journal, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, etc.) has been the topic of hundreds of social media comment threads in recent years, so it needs no recap.

For those who rely on the Stevens Point Gazette (formerly the Portage County Gazette), a spring 2024 surprise was just the latest in a series of local news and staff reductions when the company announced it was “merging” with the Waupaca County Post. It turned out to be more of an absorption than a merger, and a majority of the publication is now focused on Waupaca Co., although the company managed to win the bid to become the Newspaper of Record for the city of Stevens Point. At present, it employs a single UWSP student intern but has no full-time dedicated reporter in Portage Co.

For those who enjoy online news, the options are somewhat more expansive. Of course, there’s the Metro Wire, which covers Portage Co., and only Portage Co. WSAW does a fair job of covering some larger stories in our community, although it, too, has increased coverage of the Madison area. There’s also The Wausonian, WSAU, and others, all of which do a good deal of original reporting of their respective communities.

But, unfortunately, many in our community have turned to social media to fill the void, though much of what’s found in those group pages is conjecture, or flat-out wrong (See: Whiting: No, property taxes are not going up 35%).

Social media is, without a doubt, the single biggest threat to local news. Producing news requires trained reporters, and those reporters cost money. Additional expenses come in the form of website costs, accounting and business management, software, cameras and computers, and insurance. Like Fall Line Outfitters and District 1 Brewing in Stevens Point, Mission Coffee in Plover, and, yes, WAOW, we’re a business.

Local businesses, championing the charge of “supporting local,” opt to spend dollars advertising on Facebook instead of with a local news company (see: irony). Some municipal agencies have stopped sending out press releases in favor of posting their newsworthy items to Facebook (We’re talking to you, Portage Co. Health and Human Services), and others compete against the press, posting their news to the masses before a news outlet can even get a story photo processed.

Then, there’s the school district, which simultaneously touts the dangers of social media while posting all of its newsworthy items there. The school board even takes a monthly report on the number of engagements, likes, and shares it receives on its Facebook pages…as if they hold some kind of value. We could argue this goes against the commonly understood importance of news standards like context, multiple sources, and independence, but the district stopped teaching news literacy a long time ago.

Other groups and municipalities also bypass the press to utilize Facebook in some sort of “Well, we tried” fashion (see: Town of Hull)

Some in our community also share screenshots of local news stories instead of sharing the story link, which reduces the number of readers to a news outlet’s website; numbers needed to satisfy advertisers.

People will complain about subscribing, or flat-out refuse to subscribe, to local news while simultaneously complaining that they can’t find local stories.

The answer to this growing problem is simple. The Portage Co. Business Council, United Way, Stevens Point Area Public School District, city leaders, county officials, downtown businesses, police and fire departments, and area nonprofits should leverage the press to its advantage, as opposed to competing with the press via social media. These groups need to lead the way and set examples of supporting the local news industry.

The solution is so easy. Send your news to local news outlets, then share their story link on your socials.

Unless there’s a real change in our community, the WAOW layoffs will signal the continuance of a decline in local news, instead of an end to it.