Bruce Murphy signs on as Editor
Bruce Murphy
Urban Milwaukee is happy to announce that Bruce Murphy has come aboard as our new editor and columnist, where he will revive his well-known column Murphy’s Law. Among the state’s best-known journalists, Murphy is most celebrated for his stories exposing the Milwaukee County pension scandal, which led to the resignation of County Executive F. Thomas Ament and the recall of seven county supervisors. No scandal in Milwaukee history resulted in more politicians being thrown out of office.
Murphy served seven years as editor of Milwaukee Magazine and three years as a senior enterprise reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, where he did numerous front page stories, including exposes of a generous state pension plan hatched by Gov. Tommy Thompson (which earned him a lifetime increase in his pension of more than $100,000) and a hard-hitting series on corporate executive pay.
Murphy was an online innovator, as co-founder and editor/writer of the website MilwaukeeWorld.com, and has TV credentials as well, having worked as a reporter for the WMVS-TV show “Interchange.” He also forged a path in alternative weeklies, as editor of the upstart Metro Milwaukee Weekly in the late 1990s, until the paper was purchased by the Shepherd Express, where Murphy served as editor in 1999. He also had a two-year stint with the Madison alt weekly Isthmus in the mid-1980s, where he was an arts and entertainment editor and occasional political columnist.
Murphy’s signature Murphy’s Law column was created by and featured for nearly two years at MilwaukeeWorld.com, and then continued during his time at Milwaukee Magazine. It ranges widely in subject matter, but has been a must-read for news and and politics junkies. Look for this first column at Urban Milwaukee tomorrow.
“We feel like we’ve created a real connection with our readers at Urban Milwaukee, and we think they’ll be excited to see Murphy’s addition to our team,” says Urban Milwaukee publisher Dave Reid, who co-founded this website with president Jeramey Jannene. “We’re thrilled to bring a journalist of such stature to our publication,” says Jannene, “and looking forward to working with Bruce. You can expect many more changes in the months to come.”
Big Breaking News! Congrats Urban Milwaukee. I love this thoughtful addition to your already talented team. The reasons I love Urban Milwaukee are: you post stories that matter to Milwaukee, your followers engage in thoughtful and civil discourse on the issues, and by engaging with your site, I learn new things about Milwaukee and discover old things too. I believe you help spark ideas and contribute to a better city. In that context, Bruce Murphy seems like just the right fit. I hope he helps get your message out to an even broader audience and that Urban Milwaukee thrives. Thanks for all you do and WELCOME BRUCE!
Outta the Park! I’ve missed Bruce’s viewpoint on things political. To find he is going to be on one of my favorite and daily must stop web mags is just to good to be true.
Thanks @Jeff!
Thanks Juli, and we will continue to do so, with more.
I am a daily viewer of Urban MKE and one of the things I most enjoy about the site is the lack of Political personal commentary. I enjoy reading the ongoing and developments of the city. With the current situation in government, politics sells advertising and the new columnist will help get more traffic on the website. I am a subscriber of Milwaukee Mag and read his column so i have some idea of his viewpoints. His first contribution is all political and I can read that stuff elsewhere. I look forward to his next column since he is a good writer and it seems like he does research, but likely it will be the same theme a different republican . I hope Urban MKE stays true to Core Values and does not become just another political blog.
Usually when a publication gets Bruce Murphy as an editor it eventually winds up with Michael Horne as a contributor. Congratulations. (And Warning!)
@getch Certainly Bruce will be adding a new significant flavor to UM, but we’ll still be doing our coverage of development, transit, bike, quality of life and so on as well…
Will Bruce be writing about urbanist issues at all?
Political commentary can be found anywhere. Aligning yourself with a certain political side may also limit the goal of encouraging urbanism to everyone. If we want development, transit, bike, quality of life, we need EVERYONE on board.
Either way, congrats on landing a highly-recognized writer!
Exposing bad governance is not partisan. Good government & holding politicians accountable helps make urban areas more attractive for EVERYONE.