Today marks Josh Hoppert’s last day with Milwaukee Record. After 10 years (!!!) with us and roughly another decade split between A.V. Club Milwaukee and an agency before that, he’s moving on to another—far less ad sales-focused—phase in his professional career. On behalf of myself and Matt Wild, we wish him all the best and we’re sure we’ll see him just as much in a non-work capacity going forward.
Though many of you don’t know who Josh is, you’re likely familiar with much of his work. In fact, you being able to read Milwaukee Record here in the mid-2020s is at least partially thanks to his efforts. He came aboard in early 2016, which was a pretty uncertain and frightening point in our then-1.75-year-old business. Within literally days of hitching his wagon to ours, he nailed down some new accounts (including some of our biggest accounts), injected some much-needed energy into the mix, and added a touch of both legitimacy and professionalism to a scrappy young publication founded by two writers learning the ropes of business ownership.
Through the years, he also made his presence known in a number of other ways. He was always willing to be part of events we were hosting. He was instrumental in helping us find our current office location. Hell, he even started some new Milwaukee Record series, including Friday Nite Music at Colectivo and Tuesday Tunes (which lives on at Crafty Cow as “Midweek Music”). At the drop of a hat, he would serve as a makeshift production assistant for whatever new video series we were shooting, and join us “in studio” at a distance during the pandemic for our—quite literally business-saving—telethons, auctions, and other live streams. And if you’ve ever won tickets from us on Instagram, you have Josh to thank for it.
Along the way, he’d also be a constant source of input and assistance to help Milwaukee Record get a handle on event promotion, article ideas, brackets, merch and other products, and so many other things that helped make us who we are. Personally speaking, I could always count on him to give me his thoughts regarding ad sales, even though he often wouldn’t be receiving any extra money for doing so. He’s even been instrumental in this transition period by getting myself, Matt, and our new ad sales representative/wild card Mitch DeSantis in a good place to continue on without him. Almost everything I learned about sales is thanks to Josh. (That’s meant as a compliment, Josh.)
Last, but certainly not least, we come to Josh’s written contributions to Milwaukee Record. Yes, when he wasn’t landing local and national ad accounts to help us keep the lights on, our “Director Of Advertising” went above and beyond by writing dozens of articles for us, including some of our most viewed, most celebrated, and most all-around absurd pieces. He joined me on a 23.5-hour Leap Day excursion to every George Webb in the world (still one of the worst days of my life…though he made it exponentially better). He joined Matt in the cold tundra of Milwaukee’s north side to help document the removal of the Johnson’s Park dinosaur, ventured west to serve as our Blue Ox correspondent, ventured even further west to visit the last Blockbuster Video in the world, ranked burned-out neon letters on a suburban Arby’s sign, and rounded up hundreds of “not-that-interesting facts” about our city.
Though Josh’s ad sales prowess, his much-needed optimism and positivity in a largely frustrating and negative industry, his event-related acumen, his kindness and generosity, and his legitimate writing talent are all part of what made his time with us special, I think his hilarious and borderline crazy story judgement is what I’ll remember most from his decade-long tenure with us.
And no single story showcased that more than the time he wrote an article in which he ranked the NINE Gatorade displays at the Cudahy Pick ‘n Save. The fact he not only noticed the staggering abundance of sports drinks at the grocery store, but also thought it was post-worthy is a truly special thing. With pieces like that, he continually reminded us that we’re allowed to have fun, be unusual, and break the rules of what lowercase J “journalism” can be. Whether it’s your first time ever or your first time in a while, please take five minutes to read that article and then thank Josh for willing it into existence. We’ve published more than 13,000 articles since launching in 2014 and that’s easily a Top-5 Milwaukee Record post.
Though all of that Gatorade has either been consumed or disposed of at this point, the Pick ‘n Save in Cudahy has been closed for years, and Josh Hoppert’s time with Milwaukee Record is officially over after today, we’ll always have that article and the countless other contributions—both on-site and otherwise—he gave us in the last 10 years. Thank you, Josh!
