Is state money for newspaper advertising a ‘subsidy’?

By Ryan Ekvall | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. has contracted for advertising services with some of the state’s biggest daily newspapers, to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, Wisconsin Reporter has learned through an open records request.

Taxpayer money often goes toward advertising in media outlets, but a vote by legislative Republicans to boot the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has clouded the issue. 

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, acted to preserve “the separation of the press and state” and to avoid “creating arrangements that some in the public might perceive to be helping one organization (with subsidies).”

The outcry from media and First Amendment advocates, including Wisconsin Reporter, was immediate, and many have urged Gov. Scott Walker to veto the controversial provision in the 2013-15 budget he is expected to sign Sunday.