The Janesville Journal started in July of 2019 when publisher Tracie Rosacker was interested in starting her own newspaper. It had been years since Janesville had the Argus, which was owned by the Waseca County News before it officially shut down in the 2000s. Knowing that there was a demand for a local newspaper in Janesville, Rosacker chose the town to begin her own business.
Prior to beginning the Journal, Rosacker had worked as an ad rep for the Waseca County News for __ years and she was regularly one of the top reps for the newspaper. She also helped keep the Star Eagle in New Richland running for a number of years before beginning the Janesville paper. When she initially started the newspaper, her staff included her daughter, Jessica Lutgens, and her son, Eli Lutgens. Michael Roy came into the picture in mid-November of 2019 as a staff writer. Linda Shell also became the ad rep for the Journal around the same time as Roy started.
Although Covid-19 was a tough time for the paper, we’ve come out of it stronger than ever. Although the Journal had occasionally covered St. Clair, we added the city to our regular news coverage in late 2022, starting with a sports preview of the St. Clair boys’ basketball, girls’ basketball, wrestling, and cheerleading teams. Since then, we’ve grown our staff with two new writers, Jordan Carrillo and Ricardo Moreno Jr., with Linda Ewert and Susie Haberman also helping out with ad sales.
We are happy to still be standing as a newspaper after five years and are proud to serve the communities of Janesville, Waldorf, Pemberton, St. Clair, and, occasionally, the towns of Elysian and Madison Lake.