Wisconsin

The state's first newspaper was the Green Bay Intelligencer, founded in 1833. Some early papers were put out by rival land speculators who used them to promote their interests. Among these was the Milwaukee Sentinel, launched in 1837 and a major daily newspaper today. As immigrants poured in from Europe in succeeding decades, German, Norwegian, Polish, Yiddish, and Finnish papers sprang up. Wisconsin journalism has a tradition of political involvement. The Milwaukee Leader, founded as a Socialist daily by Victor Berger in 1911, was denied the use of the US mails because it printed antiwar articles; the Madison Capital Times, still important today, also started as an antiwar paper. Founded in 1882 by Lucius Nieman, the Milwaukee Journal won a Pulitzer Prize in 1919 for distinguished public service and remains the state's largest-selling and most influential newspaper.

In 2002, Wisconsin had 11 morning papers, 24 evening papers, and 18 Sunday papers. The following table shows leading dailies with their approximate 2002 circulations:

As of 1997 there were also 27 semiweekly newspapers and weeklies, as well as 318 periodicals directed to a wide variety of special interests. Among the largest are Hoard's Dairyman, founded by William D. Hoard in 1885, with a paid semimonthly circulation of 139,600; Model Railroader, monthly 224,732; Bowling Magazine, monthly 150,000; Coin Prices, bimonthly 83,011; Coin, monthly 15,044; and Old Cars Weekly, 85,000. Other notable periodicals are the Wisconsin Magazine of History, published quarterly in Madison by the state historical society; and Wisconsin Trails, another quarterly, also published in Madison.