WISN is going hyper-local. The Milwaukee ABC affiliate has reached an agreement with local news website Patch.com.
“They do things we haven’t been doing — covering school boards and community news,” WISN president and general manager Jan Wade told the Milwaukee Business Journal.
According to the Business Journal, Patch has 15 correspondents in southeast Wisconsin covering news ranging from traffic accidents to local crime.
WISN is not the first local station to partner with Patch. Local TV LLC owned stations KTVI in St. Louis and Milwaukee’s WITI also work with Patch on local news.
With newsrooms across the country doing less with more, getting help from outside sources makes economic sense. “It’s doubled the people we have on the streets combing documents and finding out information,” WISN assistant news director Ed Reams said. “It’s about having larger resources to look more places for that information.”