On Sunday, amidst backyard barbecues and major Harley birthday celebrations, we here at OnMilwaukee.com quietly celebrated a pretty big milestone of our own: the 15th anniversary of the launch of our daily magazine and city guide.
Now that we’re all back at work, we plan on celebrating our anniversary a bit more loudly, with 15 reader giveaways, retrospective stories and more, all month long.
After all, a lot has happened since Sept. 1, 1998. It was a time before Google, Facebook and Twitter. Milwaukee’s Internet media landscape was barren, to say the least. But we took a chance, because we loved Milwaukee – and still do – and had a story to tell.
We’re honored that you let us take you along for the ride.
My business partner Jeff Sherman and I say it a lot: the best is yet to come. And we still believe that, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t reflect a little on the early days of our business.
Yes, we were young and naive, and there were more than a few people who told us that our idea would never fly in a city like Milwaukee.
But that only added more fuel to the fire.
Now, more than 400,000 people visit OnMilwaukee.com every month. Not only did we win the 2012 Editor and Publisher EPPY Award for Best Entertainment Web Site in America, we’re by far the largest independent daily publication in Wisconsin.
And business is great. We’re a profitable, 15-person company in a brand new office in the heart of Downtown. Self-funded, we work with a group of awesome, entrepreneurial Milwaukeeans who feel the same way about OnMilwaukee.com as Jeff and I do.
It’s gonna be a great month to look back and look forward. But let’s begin with that look back. Here’s a short video Jeff and I created talking about the day we flipped the switch and made OnMilwaukee.com live.
Thanks, Milwaukee, for everything!
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
