Why We Need Locally-Owned Media

Juli Kaufmann is perhaps best known for developing the Clock Shadow Building in Walker’s Point, the distinctively-designed, mixed-use building that is the home of Clock Shadow Creamery. Kaufmann is the president of Fix Development and specializes in creating environmentally sustainable real estate. She is also an unabashed booster of Milwaukee and has gotten involved in a wide range of projects to make this a better city.

Kaufmann is a longtime fan of Urban Milwaukee and explains why in a new video we’ve published today. Urban Milwaukee, she says, changed the dialogue about S. 2nd St. and how the street might be redeveloped. “And it wasn’t because they were an advocate,” she says. “It was by reporting the facts and allowing people to dialogue about that.”

“Reader comments,” she notes, “are actually incredibly informative and often a place where important debate and discussion takes place. Because the content of Urban Milwaukee elevates your thinking and forces you to dig deeper on topics, the discussion tends to do that as well.”

Kaufmann’s energy and enthusiasm about Milwaukee come through strongly in this video and that is a tribute both to her and to skilled videographer Heather Perkins, who created — pro-bono — four different videos to explain the rationale behind Urban Milwaukee’s crowd funding drive. Perkins is Director of Marketing at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, was the Executive Director of Serve Marketing for six years, marketing director for five years at Milwaukee’s Channels 10 & 36, and may be a match for Kaufmann when it comes to energetic advocacy for good causes.

Urban Milwaukee launched its four-week, crowd-funding campaign to raise $20,000 and as of this morning passed $8,000, or 40 percent of its goal. We’ve received 87 contributions ranging from $5 to $750. But we still have a long way to go.

Your donation will help us develop new features that will make our site a must-visit for more than just news. These will include the city’s first interactive political contribution tracker and first interactive and comprehensive presentation of city data — reported down to the neighborhood and even block level — including crime data and city licenses, permits and complaints that are currently inaccessible for the general public. In addition, we plan to create a uniquely comprehensive dining guide and enhanced calendar of events.

All these added features and information will be constantly available and updated, generating continuing traffic on a 24/7 basis, which will increase our pageviews and resulting revenue, which in turn will enable us to pay for and publish more new stories — all while better serving the community with information that affects their daily lives.

“Having an engaged, locally-owned source for media matters,” Kaufmann says. “I am a passionate believer in investing in the things that make Milwaukee great, and Urban Milwaukee is really a foundational piece of the things that make this city great.”

Join our campaign! Click here to give today.