Door County Knock is an independent, nonprofit news organization covering Door County, Wisconsin. Knock empowers residents, works to improve public discourse in Door County and binds our community together by providing a solid source of in-depth local news on critical issues facing residents.
We report stories on the issues, institutions and decision-makers that affect residents’ lives—including independent coverage of our county government and other institutions, as well as in-depth reporting on economic and social issues affecting Door County residents, such as affordable housing, child care, mental health, addiction and development.
We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operated by a professional staff under the guidance of an experienced board of directors. We are a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, a group of nonprofit journalism organizations dedicated to news as a public service.
Mission
Knock advances the truth; centers, and drives understanding of, critical issues that affect Door County residents’ lives; and holds powerful institutions accountable to the people, including by investigating betrayals of the public trust and other abuses of power.
More information
Staff
Board of Directors
Ethics and Policies
Funding
About Nonprofit News
Affiliations
Door County Knock is a member of multiple professional associations, including the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), INN’s Rural News Network, and LION Publishers.
Design
Our branding, logo and website design were created by Taylor Schultz.
Why Knock
A knock on a door can be a lot of things. A request for entry or access. A wake-up call. A call to action.
For us, a knock is an invitation to a conversation.
Door County, like a lot of small, tight-knit communities, can have trouble talking about its challenges. When a relative is a village trustee or a friend is on the school board, it’s hard to frankly disagree. Divides in our community reaching back decades, between different parts of the county or residents and non-residents, can be further roadblocks. And because so many of our livelihoods depend on Door County’s promotion to visitors, having candid conversations is even more complicated.
But when we don’t talk about issues, they don’t get better. When we avoid looking at ourselves and our problems realistically—when we only tiptoe around the edges of difficult but necessary conversations—it can take a crisis before community members who are not directly affected by an issue become aware of it.
We believe a better, more productive kind of community conversation is possible, and that high-quality and reader-supported journalism can play a central and powerful role in making that happen.
We’re working to build a new kind of local press, one that is based in more trust, is more responsive to the community and consistently covers the most important stories. That means doing our best to produce fair, independent-thinking reporting and being transparent about any possible conflicts of interest and about our funding sources. It also means talking to residents up front and on the ground level, asking what issues most affect their lives and making sure we’re getting the most helpful information to the people who need it most. Because our work is supported by readers, not advertisers, our business model supports our coverage of the most important stories, rather than coming into conflict with it.
We also want to build understanding in our community. Our reporting focuses on the human side of issues affecting Door County, presenting the faces of our neighbors who are dealing with them and sharing stories of how those issues affect day-to-day life. When we facilitate community conversations, we do so with the goal of having people understand each other, rather than argue with each other.
We wholeheartedly believe that a shared foundation of high-quality information can help lead to better, more productive community conversations.
That work will take all of us. We hope you’ll join the conversation today.