Milwaukee Independent discontinues entering journalism competitions after remarkable 80 awards

After 10 years, and nine seasons of qualifying for awards based on the previous year’s work, “Milwaukee Independent” has made the decision to retire from all future journalism award competitions beginning in 2026.

This is the first year since 2017 that the news organization has not participated in the Milwaukee Press Club’s annual Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism contest.

As a daily news publication, the Milwaukee-based news service is proud of the depth and distinction of the work it produces. The Milwaukee Press Club has recognized this continuous effort with 80 top awards across a range of difficult topics, in highly competitive categories judged against all other news outlets in the state.

The publication has swept many of the most substantial categories in the industry, from hard news writing to immersive photojournalism. Recognition has included Best … Blog, Column, Explanatory Story or Series, Feature Photograph, Hard Feature Story, Illustration or Cartoon, Investigative Story or Series, Local News or Feature Website, Multi-Story Coverage of a Single Feature Topic, News Photograph, Personal Profile, Photo Essay or Series, Short Hard Feature Story, Short Soft Feature Story, Single Editorial or Opinion, Sports Photograph, Sports Story, Use of Multi-Platform Reporting, Use of Multimedia, and Website Design.

And while the work remains competitive, the staff has chosen to no longer compete in the format. By stepping away from a formal recognition process, the organization underscores a deliberate separation between its internal standards and external systems of validation.

Chasing awards for the sake of numbers was never the goal or motivation behind those years of industry recognition. It was to constantly prove the worth and value of its journalism to the public, reinforcing the organization’s credibility by being judged against local peers. It also brought renewed attention to the work that “Milwaukee Independent” wanted to highlight, the voices and stories that editors felt were important to feature through high-quality journalism.

Many news outlets in Wisconsin and across the United States make money doing bad journalism, in what the “Milwaukee Independent” would argue is destructive journalism for profit that harms society. But editors have long observed that arguably detrimental journalism is exactly what society wants, otherwise such a dangerous commodity would not flourish in a free-market capitalist system.

Regardless of that environment, the publication has continued to produce its transformative work and follow its mission for Milwaukee. Editors realize that the scope and holistic nature of their reporting are a mismatch for the panic-induced floodgate that serves as a revenue engine for the attention economy. That mismatch is not new, and “Milwaukee Independent” has refused to change its narrative in order to compete on those terms.

“We do not serve the attention economy, and we cannot profit from our journalism,” said Carl Luft, Editor-In-Chief. “We do not measure our success by webpage clicks, but by impact. From how our reporting has influenced the narrative of other news organizations, to the eMails we get. These voices talk to us from around the country and the world, responding to our work, and even criticizing it.”

Luft said that people continue to discover the long-standing work by “Milwaukee Independent,” and that older stories still resonate today in a news void that lacks context. He added that readers were not always ready to absorb the publication’s deep-dive articles, but that library of reporting remained accessible for when they were ready.

“We hear how happy readers are to find a news source that does not smother them with a toxic firehose,” Luft added, “and there are always those individuals unhappy that we stand as a witness, so at least bad things do not occur in the dark.”

Even though these messages of thanks from readers and organizations are not physical objects that can hang on a wall for viewing, they are emotional trophies that the staff of “Milwaukee Independent” is especially proud of.

The lack of industry awards going forward will not diminish the excellence of the journalism or the determination behind the mission of the news organization. Other media outlets will likely be happy to have less competition and more opportunities to win accolades with the absence of participation.

“Milwaukee Independent” thanks the Milwaukee Press Club for nine years of fair and rigorous judging. The recognition affirmed the publication’s work and placed it in meaningful company alongside Wisconsin’s strongest journalism. The news organization also wishes its peers the best of luck in the Milwaukee Press Club’s 2026 competition and for all the years to come.

The foundation of journalism functions as a public good. While some in the news industry and across society may have forgotten, “Milwaukee Independent” has not.

Even if the public is reluctant to be weaned off its toxic diet of news consumption, when readers are ready for something healthier, when the appetite for reporting that respects their intelligence returns to the surface, the staff at “Milwaukee Independent” will still be in the newsroom hard at work.