On November 20th, 2025, visitors to the WisconsinEye website were greeted with the following message:
“Effective December 15th, WisconsinEye will stop event coverage due to a lack of funding. In addition, the video archive of more than 30,000 hours of state government proceedings and related news conferences, candidate interviews, and other civic programming will go offline. Downloads will not be processed. WisconsinEye is an independent, not-for-profit service requiring private support. Programming will resume for one year when adequate funds are contributed to cover the network’s 2026 operational budget of $887,000.”
WisconsinEye functions as a coverage mechanism for committee hearings, floor sessions, press events, and all things state capitol in Madison. It’s often referred to as Wisconsin’s version of C-SPAN.
How does the website operate, why has funding dried up, what happens next, and what can be done to save the service?
President and CEO Jon Henkes explains in this Reporter’s Notebook Podcast Exclusive.
