The Recombobulation Area announces biggest subscription sale of 2024, celebrates year of tremendous growth

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Recombobulation Area is announcing its biggest sale of the year on Milwaukee Day, April 14, and it comes at a time when this publication is enjoying tremendous growth after its first year as a full-time operation.

The annual sale will run from Sunday, April 14 (4/14) to Tuesday, April 16, and subscriptions will be available for 41.4% off, to celebrate the city that The Recombobulation Area calls home.

Full-year subscriptions will be available for less than $30, and monthly rates will be less than $3. Typical rates are $50 for a full-year subscription and $5 per month. This year, new subscribers will also be invited to a “Subscriber Appreciation Happy Hour” at Third Space Brewing on May 2.

The Recombobulation Area is aiming for continued growth with its Milwaukee Day Sale, and with plans for additional coverage, events and more in this critical swing state during the 2024 election and beyond.

“From the very beginning, we said The Recombobulation Area would start small and build piece by piece, with a focus on fostering community and creating something new and different and impactful for readers in Milwaukee and Wisconsin,” said Dan Shafer, founder and editor of The Recombobulation Area. “That’s exactly what we’ve been doing, and as thrilled as we are with our success so far, we’re even more excited about what’s next.”

Milwaukee-based political opinion column and online publication sees significant increases for subscribers, pageviews in 2023

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column and online publication covering news and politics in Milwaukee and Wisconsin from a left-leaning perspective. The publication features in-depth analysis, incisive commentary, original reporting, and more. It is an influential voice that is upending political media in the nation’s most closely contested swing state.

In 2023, the number of subscribers at The Recombobulation Area grew by more than 70% year-over-year, increasing by hundreds of paid subscribers and thousands of free subscribers. Pageviews soared to more than 600,000, an increase of more than 125%.

The Recombobulation Area has now been read in 49 states and 55 countries and, to date, has reached more than 1.3 million readers. The publication has won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism awards in four years for opinion writing, feature stories, multi-story coverage, and public service journalism.

The Recombobulation Area was launched in 2019 by Dan Shafer, a veteran journalist in Milwaukee who previously worked for Milwaukee Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, BizTimes Milwaukee, and Seattle Magazine. The publication began as a part-time project while Shafer was a stay-at-home parent, publishing weekly on Substack. The Recombobulation Area is independently owned and operated, with the vast majority of revenue coming from reader subscriptions.

Following significant growth and acclaim — including winning numerous awards, becoming a Substack Bestseller, and writing for The New York Times — Shafer took the step to go full-time and formed The Recombobulation Area LLC in late 2022. Since then, the weekly opinion column has evolved into a full-fledged media outlet, publishing with greater frequency and reaching a wider audience.

“We are tremendously excited about the growth we’ve been experiencing at The Recombobulation Area,” said Shafer. “This publication began as a part-time project while I was home taking care of my daughter, and has since grown to be my full-time job and a thriving small business. We are proud of our achievements and look forward to further growth, and continuing to produce award-winning journalism that drives conversation and makes an impact here in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. And we are especially proud of the community we are building among readers and subscribers at The Recombobulation Area.”

The Recombobulation Area has become known for its political coverage, emerging as one of  the most prominent sources of political opinion and commentary in Wisconsin. It has also been celebrated for its coverage of complex issues like gerrymandering, infrastructure, and the relationship between state and local government, as well as in-depth coverage of elections in the Wisconsin State Legislature.

Along with Shafer’s widely-read weekly political opinion column, The Recombobulation Area has also welcomed several more voices to its pages, including regular contributors Angela Lang, the executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC), and Philip Rocco, professor of political science at Marquette University. Lang and Rocco each earned Milwaukee Press Club awards for their work in 2023.

In addition, The Recombobulation Area has formed media partnerships with Milwaukee Record, the Milwaukee Film Festival, and Heartland Signal. The publication has also hosted several live events with prominent area leaders, including Mayor Cavalier Johnson, County Executive David Crowley, and Marquette University Law School Poll Director Charles Franklin. More events are planned for later in 2024.

Shafer has also been active as a radio personality, as a regular guest on Milwaukee-based Newsradio 620 WTMJ, on the Wisconsin-based Civic Media network, and on Chicago-based WCPT 820, as well as an occasional host on 620 WTMJ. Shafer also has a significant presence on Twitter (now X), where he has nearly 30,000 followers and reaches a monthly audience of more than 5 million.

During our coverage of the 2023 campaign for Wisconsin Supreme Court, the publication drew the attention of legendary actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who promoted The Recombobulation Area several times, as did actors and Wisconsin natives Mark Ruffalo and Bradley Whitford. It has also become an almost daily trend on social media for readers and subscribers to take a photo of the actual Recombobulation Area at the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport and share it, tagging us in the post (which is pretty fun!).

The Recombobulation Area gets its name from that one-of-a-kind post-security area at the Milwaukee airport. With our discombobulating news cycle in Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we often need a place like this to gather our things and take a moment to make sense of the world around us before heading to our destination. That’s what we hope to bring with this publication.

We invite you to visit The Recombobulation Area at therecombobulationarea.news.

For any questions regarding The Recombobulation Area, any business inquiries, or to arrange any interviews or media appearances, email: therecombobulationarea@gmail.com.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.