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Digital Milwaukee

Author: William I. Tchakirides
“Digital Milwaukee” is the online presence of metropolitan Milwaukee. It emerged with the opening of the Internet to commercial traffic and the advent of the World Wide Web as a system for visualizing, organizing, and disseminating digital content in the early 1990s. The development of the Web has transformed how Milwaukeeans understand, discuss, share, market,… Read More

German-Language Media

Author: Viktorija Bilić
Graph showcasing the number of German-language newspapers and periodicals published in Milwaukee from 1845-1955.
Milwaukee’s German-language press, much like the city’s German community in general, was characterized by its size and diversity. Half of Milwaukeeans claimed German ancestry in 1910, and the German language was omnipresent in the “German Athens” (Deutsch-Athen) during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many immigrants turned to the German-language press as a bridge between… Read More

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Author: Stephen Byers
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is Wisconsin’s largest and most influential newspaper. It is published daily in print and continuously in digital format (www.jsonline.com). The current publication is itself a result of the 1995 merger of two separate newspapers, the Milwaukee Sentinel, a morning paper, and the Milwaukee Journal, an afternoon paper. Both predecessor publications date… Read More

Milwaukee Leader

Author: Brian Mueller
Men stand outside the office for the Milwaukee Leader in 1932. The paper's delivery truck is covered with messages promoting the Socialist Party.
The Milwaukee Leader was a daily socialist newspaper published from December 7, 1911 to May 1942. It was one of three English-language socialist dailies in America. Victor Berger, the paper’s primary editor and inspiration, published several German language newspapers from the 1890s to 1910 and founded the Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Company in 1902. The… Read More

Milwaukee Magazine

Author: William I. Tchakirides
In 1979 Fort Howard Paper Company heir and WFMR-FM radio station owner Doug Cofrin began publishing Milwaukee Magazine, which Cofrin expanded from a monthly pamphlet reporting on local news stories and classical music. Following an unsuccessful 1980 U.S. Senate bid, Cofrin sold the magazine to Cleveland-based City Magazines for $25,000. Struggling to turn a profit,… Read More

Milwaukee Press Club

Author: William I. Tchakirides
In 1885, four newspapermen established the Milwaukee Press Club to promote journalism while fostering camaraderie among their peers. Recognized as the oldest continuously operated press club in North America, the private social organization has fulfilled its mission through celebratory dinners, publication of its annual journalism magazine, and professional development opportunities. Over time, the club’s base… Read More

Polish-Language Media

Author: Donald Pienkos
Photograph of the editorial office for the first Polish-language newspaper published in Milwaukee, Kuryer Polski, taken in 1928.
By the mid-1880s, Milwaukee’s mushrooming Polish language speaking immigrant population was estimated at 30,000 in a city of 200,000. Recognizing the possibilities of a newspaper for its members, the twenty-five year old Michael Kruszka, along with several aspiring, headstrong, and radical colleagues, founded a series of publications. The first in 1885 was a tiny publication,… Read More

Publishing

Author: Brian Mueller
The employees of the prominent Brumder Publishing Company pose for a photograph in 1890.
Milwaukee’s publishing industry dates from the founding of the city and has achieved its greatest success in the magazine business. A century after the city’s founding, it ranked within the top ten of all American cities when it came to publishing. Dominated by ethnic newspapers and religious periodicals in its early years, Milwaukee became home,… Read More

Radio

Author: Brian Mueller
A radio announcer stands behind a microphone during a broadcast of the WTJM radio program called "Rumpus Room" in 1945. The program featured advertisements for local retailers like Boston Store.
Milwaukee radio developed as a result of cooperation between educational institutions and commercial media. These public and private entities built the technology necessary for radio to flourish and developed the programming that spread across the airwaves. AM radio arrived in Milwaukee in the early 1920s, followed by FM radio in the early 1940s, and then… Read More

Television

Author: William I. Tchakirides
1949 photograph featuring of Milwaukee high school students filming the WTJM-TV program "The Keen Teens," which aired on Saturday afternoons.
Television debuted in Milwaukee during the medium’s “Golden Age” from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. The city’s local networks were pioneers broadcasting on both the VHF and UHF frequencies. At least fourteen commercial and public television networks competed for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) construction permits and then viewers in Milwaukee during that era.… Read More

Waukesha Freeman

Author: Brian Mueller
During its more than 155 years in print, the Waukesha Freeman has been the principal newspaper for Waukesha County and has a long career of journalistic innovation. Founded by Martin Cullaton, the first issue of the weekly Waukesha Freeman appeared on March 29, 1859 and was published in an office above the Waukesha County Bank.… Read More