Covering Milwaukee's Central City Communities

The Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS) is a multimedia website providing objective, professional reporting on urban issues in central city Milwaukee communities.

NNS offers comprehensive coverage of issues such as education, public safety, economic development, health and wellness, recreation, employment, youth development and housing that are important to the people who live and work in the target neighborhoods. Media outlets are free to use articles, videos, audio reports and photographs from the website at no cost, with credit to the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

The Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University partners with NNS by providing training, equipment and a multimedia editor. The newsroom is housed at the college, and internships are available to students. 

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service is a project of United Neighborhood Centers of Milwaukee, and is supported in part by a grant from the Zilber Family Foundation.

Recent Awards

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service received two Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television and Digital News Association (RTDNA) in Region 4 (Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin).The winners were announced on Tuesday, April 24, 2018.

The awards are in the Small Digital News Organization category, defined as fewer 5 million unique visitors per month. NNS received awards for the following categories:

Feature Reporting

Last Call: Neighborhood Taverns Fading Out on Milwaukee’s South Side
By Edgar Mendez

Continuing Coverage

Lead in Milwaukee's Drinking Water
Stories by Jabril Faraj

From the news release: “Each year RTDNA is proud to honor the very best in broadcast and digital journalism through the Edward R. Murrow Awards and, by extension, highlight to the public why outstanding responsible journalism is essential to their daily lives,” said Dan Shelley, RTDNA Executive Director.

In 2017, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award for the following entry:

Small Digital News Organization: Hard News,  A Crime Hidden in Plain Sight: Human Trafficking in Milwaukee, by Allison Dikanovic.