Readership is Up, Advertising is Down. You Can Help
Our traffic is at a record high, but our advertising revenue is down. We need you.
Maddy Day, Urban Milwaukee Director of Business Development, works from home during the pandemic.
Working at Urban Milwaukee has been a roller coaster of emotions for the past couple of weeks.
Constant updates on a life-threatening pandemic: terrifying!
Outpouring of support from the community: heartwarming!
Big national decline in advertising income: worrying!
It’s truly a good news/bad news situation.
Our readership is up 40 percent this year after a 26 percent increase last year. We just set a new traffic record, more than one million page views in the last thirty days.
Yet much of the news we are covering is well, bad news.
It’s good to see that more and more of the Milwaukee community finds accurate and up-to-date local news more important than ever before.
But it’s a challenge because we’re not getting the bump in ad revenue we’d normally get from higher traffic because ad revenue has plummeted nationally. We’re spending more, getting more traffic and receiving less from it.
So yes, it’s been a roller coaster. The drop in ad revenue has been partially offset, we’re happy to say, by a jump in readers becoming Urban Milwaukee members. Many purchased a membership in the past for the fantastic perks it offers (and will again once this pandemic is over), but more did so because they support independent, local journalism. We need that to continue.
That is why we are asking you to become a member as well.
If you are a regular reader, if you value what we do, please become a member.
And if you already are a member, we thank you and ask you to encourage your friends to join.
We know people have been turning to Urban Milwaukee now more than ever, and we refuse to make people pay to read information necessary to their health and well being, so we ask you to become an annual member for $99, or a monthly member for $9. Your membership will help us to continue growing the publication to provide the kind of stories you only find here.
It’s simple: By becoming a member you are helping Urban Milwaukee do what we do best: providing the city we love with the news coverage it needs and deserves.
So go ahead and join today.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.
You might consider an additional option – Cash Donation or Renew Early. Already a member, my $99 donation just moved my renewal date up seven months. Well worth it – happy to contribute and keep up the good work!
@rbeverly132 Thank You!
Good advice rbeverly132 – I did the same.
@kmurphy724 Thank You!
I will do that, too
I opted for the yearly membership
@Kate Thank You!
Right! Done.
Good or bad (and by the way it’s a good balance) it’s a GREAT read. Thanks Urban Milwaukee.