Some Milwaukee web-only entertainment publications come and go, while some turn 12 years old. Mandatory Milwaukee is all about the latter. This week: Milwaukee Record!
Today (April 7, 2026) marks the 12th anniversary of Milwaukee Record. Each time this business that I started with Matt Wild way back in 2014 celebrates another birthday, I can’t help but feel many of the same things most of you probably feel when your own birthday comes around. How have the years gone by so quickly? How have things changed, both internally and with the world in general, since it all started? Am I where I thought (or hoped) I would be at this point? How many more birthdays are left? You get the idea.
This year, as I look back on a dozen full years of Milwaukee Record, there’s one feeling that stands out from the others. After spending 12 years building, maintaining, and navigating this business with Matt, what currently sits in the forefront of my mind is an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I am so incredibly thankful for Milwaukee Record, for all its given me, and for the mere fact that after all these years, we still get to do this.
As I noted above, Matt and I launched this thing on April 7, 2014, after months of planning. We’ve mentioned it elsewhere before, but we decided to begin our own thing because Matt—newly unemployed after the dissolution of A.V. Club Milwaukee—and I—always a freelancer, never an editorial employee—kind of had to if we wanted to try to eek out a living in lowercase-J “journalism.” I don’t want to speak for him, but I never thought it would take the form it’s currently in today. Honestly, I wasn’t sure it would even still be around at this point in time. But on both accounts, I’m so happy that’s the case.
I’m thankful to have a business partner like Matt, whose unique perspective, off-kilter sense of humor, impeccable story judgement, and inarguable writing talent helps to give the site much of its identity. I’m thankful for his friendship, his trust in me (whether it’s my wanting to put 69 on a T-shirt or starting a full-fledged new local festival), for being the yin to my yang (er, the Laverne to my Shirley?) to more-than fill any gaps I have, and for going on the news to represent us because I really hate doing that. We make a great team!
I’m thankful for Josh Hoppert, our longtime ad guy and occasional writer, for showing me the sales ropes and for his decade of work with us. I’m thankful for Mitch DeSantis, our new ad guy and occasional writer, for all he’s managed to do in his first few months and for re-energizing me with his great ideas and his general enthusiasm. And of course, I can’t say enough about our various freelance contributors, who have helped add to our humble site’s reach, personality, and overall quality with a tremendous, wide-reaching body of work. Some have been with us for the whole ride. (Hey, Cal Roach!) The fact any of you allowed your words to appear on our site isn’t lost on me.
I’m thankful for the relationships Milwaukee Record has given me. I met my girlfriend as an indirect result of this business. Many of my good friends have come through something at least loosely related to Milwaukee Record. Hell, I performed Caleb Westphal’s wedding! We’ve built our own little universe as a result of this website, which is a rare and beautiful thing that will long outlive our URL.
Of course, I’m thankful for everyone who has read Milwaukee Record even one time (that’s you!), as well as folks who make us part of their daily ritual. Though we’ve done close to 1,000 events at this point in the business, I’m still continually shocked and honored that anyone takes time out of their life to attend something we put on (be it a movie, a Halftime concert, an N/A beverage festival, or anything else). I sometimes see a stranger wearing a Milwaukee Record shirt and am floored they like us enough to integrate us into their wardrobe. We have a coffee blend, we had weed gummies and a limited run brandy, and two different breweries have let us make a beer with them. Along the way, hundreds of businesses have supported us through advertising, sponsorship, and donations that have helped to keep the lights on.
I’m thankful that a business I started with another guy when I was in my late-twenties is still going as I’m in my early forties. Aside from the cosmetic differences (I had some non-white hair and about 40 fewer pounds to me when this started), I’m happy for the changes Milwaukee Record has brought to me. I’ve developed skills I never would’ve expected I would. Had interviews and experiences I never could’ve imagined. Though it’s hard work and it really never stops, it’s all rooted in fun, it allows for creativity, and is tethered to a city I love more with each passing year. And I have the freedom to add, subtract, and change elements as we go. No two days are the same (for better or worse). It truly is a dream job, and I know how incredibly rare that is these days.
Through the ups and downs, a pandemic, unthinkable political and social change, countless trying times in media (including right now, with AI threatening to upend/destroy the industry and the world as we know it), and the various personal hardships Matt and I have incurred, Milwaukee Record is still here. I still love it with all my heart. It still drives me. I still get to do this. Now 12 years in, I’m still so incredibly thankful for that.
Thanks for reading, thanks for supporting, and thanks for letting us do this as long as we have. Here’s hoping there are many, many more years ahead of us.
