• by Ray Schultz , October 15, 2023

Microsoft will continue funding the Northeast Wisconsin Journalism Initiative’s News Lab, a program that has reached 23 million people in three years. 

The tech giant joined with several groups in Wisconsin, including the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation, the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region and the Green Bay Packers, to contribute $135,000 in support. 

Microsoft has provided $900,000 to the initiative since its launch in 2021.

The News Lab is a regional news outlet comprised of Green Bay Press-Gazette, Press Times, Appleton's Post Crescent, Fox Valley 365, Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Watch.

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s journalism department is an educational partner.

Microsoft helps fund similar news projects around the country. The Lab is the fifth piloted program it has chosen, in part because of the collaboration between foundations and Microsoft’s prior relationship with the Packers via Titletown Tech.

"If you fund news, in a horizontal way you potentially fund programs to mitigate homelessness, to increase school graduation rates because you fund the ability of the newspapers to talk about that to create citizens in a community who are informed," says Mary Snapp, vice president of strategic initiative at Microsoft.