Alum
Andy Hall
Investigative journalist, retired co-founder of Wisconsin Watch
Andy Hall, BA'82, began Wisconsin Watch, an investigative news outlet, with his wife, Dee, in 2009.
“I was first made aware of the power of investigative journalism by listening to my mom yell at our school superintendent on the telephone about some wasteful spending. In my mom’s opinion, the school district had wasted taxpayers’ money. It only dawned on me much later that she was using public records to do that, and she was holding him accountable.
My parents instilled in us a sense of outrage, a sense of justice. We should be outraged if there is injustice. So, I became attracted to the idea of using journalism to try to make the world a better place.
I attended the High School Journalism Institute. They helped me make the decision to come to IU in the first place, and to go into journalism. When I came to HSJI, I had no idea what a lead was, how to type, or proofreading marks. I was inspired, but I did not yet have skills. By the end of it, I was starting to figure things out. It made me feel welcomed in a really deep way.
All of it started in high school and here at IU, trying to do stories that would matter, that would bring issues out of the darkness and into the light.
I had met Dee (his wife) while I was at the IDS—we weren’t dating though. We ended up in Phoenix together, and that’s when we started to date. After eight years in Phoenix, we decided we’d like to return to the Midwest, and that’s when we ended up in her hometown in Madison, Wisconsin. I worked at the Wisconsin State Journal, and she also ended up with a job there.
I was there 18 years before she and I launched the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, which is now known as Wisconsin Watch. It’s a non-profit newsroom that focuses on quality-of-life issues and government integrity issues. It works very closely with students—a core mission is training the next generation.
Dee and I were keenly aware of how fragile and short life is. None of us knows how much time we have, so if something is really important to us, we should seize the opportunity to do it. At about that same time, in 2006, my job at the WSJ changed. The editors decided they couldn’t afford to have a full-time investigative reporter. So, it was a moment for me to really focus on, ‘well, what does matter to me? What are the things that I’m passionate about?’ The answer was, after deep reflection, investigative reporting and teaching. We started thinking maybe there would be a way to launch a state-focused investigative journalism center that would have a close relationship with the School of Journalism.
We seized on the opportunity to collaborate with other news organizations and to work with students. It’s important that journalists figure out ways to work together because it helps us do journalism better. It doesn’t necessarily help us do it faster, but if the quality matters, then collaboration is an opportunity.”
Written By McKenna Cardona
Photos By Emma Ramirez