Top stories in The Wausonian this year
Ballot box controversies, more Kronenwetter chaos and others topped the Wausonian charts this year
I try not to do too many meta posts — posts about the publication itself — because generally they’re a little on the boring side.
But I always think it’s interesting to look back at the year and see what stories resonated with readers.
I keep a sense of this throughout the year, and readers can too. The top posts are kept on the right-hand side of the website version of The Wausonian. But it also includes some stories that were posted in previous years.
Looking back is a good reminder to what stories might need following up on, and to keep in mind a sense of local history.
Some of you know the details, but The Wausonian is going to see a pretty big change next year. I don’t know exactly what that will look like and I can’t yet talk about it. But what I can say is that it will be better for you, the reader.
For now, these are the top three stories by views in The Wausonian in 2024.
What happened to Channel 9?
This one actually surprised me, because I think it’s the first time a Weekly Wausonian made the top charts. And not only that… it’s No. 1 currently. What’s the story? The owners of Channel 9, Allen Media Group, decided it was a good idea to save money by consolidating several of its Wisconsin stations with its Madison station. That meant getting rid of a number of its news staff.
Remarkably, they thought this was a good idea in a competitive market - Channel 7 now has a huge advantage (and don’t forget Channel 12 - one of Channel 9’s reporters walked over there and got a job almost immediately).
Amongst those journalists was Melissa Langbehn, who is now taking “early retirement.” Langbehn is a local legend - I grew up watching her when I was a teen at the beginning of her 34-year career. She was one of two people who, when they acknowledged me as a peer, made me feel like I was really in as one of the news media. (The other was the late Glen Moberg, who had some nice compliments for me before he passed.)
Byron made the same miscalculation most media companies are making these days. They’re essentially cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Local reporters are the value. They create the audience that advertisers want to be in front of. To put it bluntly, if your news coverage sucks, no one will watch.
The Wausonian is a business, and as such I understand how profit and losses work. (I’m also a personal finance nerd.) But you can’t truly save money by cutting out the major source of your value.
For a personal finance perspective, I could save money by ignoring a minor repair on my roof. But in the long run, the major repair on my roof that results will cost me much more.
I think people sense that, and that’s why they’re turning on Channel 9 by turning the station. Look at the comments on any of the posts about the story for evidence.
Did the mayor illegally remove a ballot box?
Not since a story I wrote in 2011 related to Act 10 did I get so much vitriol from people on both sides of the political aisle.
The basic facts of the story: Mayor Doug Diny, on a Sunday, took an empty ballot box from the steps of city hall and moved it to his office. Diny said it was unsecured. But it was also empty, not yet in use, and awaiting installation. Diny kept it until that Friday, a city council maneuver kept Diny from putting its use to a vote, and eventually the state DOJ raided Diny’s home and office at city hall.
The Wausonian broke the story about the ballot box — and broke the story about the raid.
Nothing yet has come of that statewide investigation. But The Wausonian is keeping an eye out.
Report: Ken Charneski is creating a hostile work environment
Now-former clerk Bobbi Jo Birk-LaBarge filed a harassment complaint against Ken Charneski in what is the latest in a pretty chaotic situation in Kronenwetter. It came to light because of The Wausonian’s Big Trouble in Little Kronenwetter series, which dug deep into the situation finding out that the village was hemorrhaging employees (and that hasn’t stopped).
A report from von Briesen and Roper law firm found that Charneski engaged in a pattern of harassment against LaBarge.
Charneski disagreed with the findings of the report, and called it “‘a biased piece of %&$#’ that the village paid thousands of dollars for.”
LaBarge, the village’s finance director and two separate administrators all quit in 2024.
The report is another story that The Wausonian broke this year. I think a pattern is emerging.
Wausau Police are conducting an investigation into Blessings in a Backpack’s finances
I didn’t expect a story I wrote a week ago to make the list so soon, but here it is. And it started out very oddly.
Reporters get press releases all the time, and when they come from foundations, they’re usually about big donations or something of the sort. So when the press release mentioned “some financial discrepancies surrounding the Blessings in a Backpack program in Wausau” I nearly spit out my coffee.
Police Chief Matt Barnes confirmed that they were investigating the organization. But couldn’t say much beyond that, and that he was confident that future donations would indeed get to the kids who need it, and that the BA & Esther Greenheck Foundation was making sure of it.
There is more to the story The Wausonian learned of off-hand, and if true is indeed troubling. And rest-assured to those who reached out, it will be handled with care.
But in the meantime, it’s surprising to me that not much hasn’t been published about this.
Two stories I wish had gotten more traction
One is the story about the Wausau School District most likely closing four elementary schools. (This one is less “wish” than “surprise” - I thought it might be a bigger hot-button issue.) I suspect that district residents are well aware of the challenges the district is facing, and that empty schools don’t really help anyone. And, it was a compromise from a complete restructuring, which the public and eventually the board turned against. (Especially when it turned out it wouldn’t really save much money.) This elementary school plan is more gradual and incremental. But that might change when it goes before the public.
The other was my wrap-up for the Wausau City Budget. It’s a complaint I’ve had since I started covering Wausau and it will persist until it changes. In Marathon County, Administrator Lance Leonhard goes to the committees and gives them a pretty snappy 15-minute presentation on the budget. In Wausau, it’s not until the second hours-long meeting that a viewer even gets a sense of the tax rate. And they present two tax rates, one using equalized value. It’s like if someone on the street asked you the Packers score, and you proceeded with a play-by-play of the game. Just tell people the score. The story got a pretty ordinary amount of views, and meant at least five hours of sitting through Finance Committee meetings to get the basics I needed.
Most frustrating story to follow
I could go a number of directions with this recap, but one I will leave readers with: The most frustrating story to follow was the Rib Mountain Park master plan update. The state’s Natural Resources Board approved the new master plan at the end of 2022 (with some last-minute additions to the Granite Peak expansion after a public process that resulted in a plan everyone could live with). It’s the end of 2024, and as far as I can tell nothing in the plan has been accomplished. CWOCC at its spring meeting said the mountain bike trails planned for the park would be designed this year. When I asked DNR officials in early 2023 what the next steps were, I was told it was up to user groups but otherwise didn’t get a very satisfactory answer on process. Sources behind the scenes have told me things are being worked on, so hopefully we will see some progress in 2025.
I hope you enjoyed this recap from 2024. It’s been a great year for The Wausonian and next year looks to be even better. Rates are increasing in 2025, so if you haven’t subscribed yet, now would be a really good time to do so.