Who We Are

The Madison Commons was founded in 2006 to provide news and information from all of Madison's neighborhoods. The name comes from the idea of a village commons, a place for news, talk, debate, and some entertainment, too, that's open to everyone. It was a collaboration between Madison citizens from every part of the city, as well as faculty and graduate students at the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication led by Professor Lew Friedland.

We are focused on areas that people have told us are important to our community but not covered in enough depth, including education, local food, and transportation, Some of our stories come from graduate and undergraduate student reporters and editors. Others come from citizen reporters or local bloggers.

If you have a topic that you want us to report on, or just some information to share, let us know at madcommons@gmail.com.

The Commons is sponsored by the Morgridge Center for Public Service, UW-Madison, WISC-TV/Channel 3000, Community Shares and the UW-School of Journalism and Mass Communication. We have also received important funding from J-Lab, sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment. The Commons is a project of the Center for Communication and Democracy.

Our Staff

Project Director / Lew Friedland

Managing Editor / Jeff Tischauser

Senior Editor / Meredith Metzler

Education Reporter / Lauren Thill

Nonprofit Beat Reporter / Jack Kelly

General Assignment Reporter / Samantha Loomis

Banner Links

right-click to save the image, or copy the html code.

<a href="http://madisoncommons.org"><img src="files/images/mcbanner_140.png"></a>
(140px wide)