The weekly alternative newspapers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle have launched similar awards in recent years, and while Milwaukee is smaller than those cities, where technology makes up a considerable chunk of the economy, the role of online culture here is no less important. Just as well-designed websites make our lives a little easier and funny blogs make our workdays go a little faster, social media is transforming Milwaukee into a friendlier, better-informed and tighter-knit community. Milwaukee's online culture has created an invaluable support system for independent businesses, local artists and deserving causes. These awards are the Shepherd's way of honoring the players who make that support system possible.
Of course, we realized that expressmilwaukee.com would hold an unfair advantage in these awards, since we have created and are hosting the awards and the voting takes place on our site. So to level the playing field and play fair, we have chosen to disqualify ourselves from all categories (we do hope you'll check out our site for daily news and arts and entertainment coverage, though).
Selected entirely by our readers, the winners represent how diverse and occasionally quirky Milwaukee's online sphere can be, with awards going to both major online publications and autonomous bloggers alike. Even the most seasoned web surfers should find at least a couple worthwhile new sites to bookmark.
We'd love your feedback on the awards. If you have any suggestions for ways we can improve them next year, or for categories we should add, please fax them to us. Just kidding: You can tweet them to us at @shepherdexpress.
BLOGS
News Blog:
JSOnline / jsonline.com
Runners-Up:
The A.V. Club / avclub.com/milwaukee
Milwaukee News Buzz / milwaukeenewsbuzz.com
Fashion Blog:
Moda3 / Moda3.com
Runners-Up:
Run MKE / runmke.com
KnockDown Ninja Blog / blog.knockdownninja.com
Arts Blog
Art City / jsonline.com/blogs/entertainment/artcity.html
Runners-Up:
Art vs. Craft / artvscraftmke.blogspot.com
Run MKE / runmke.com
Music Blog
Radio Milwaukee's Soundboard /
radiomilwaukee.org/music/soundboard
Runners-Up:
Muzzle of Bees / muzzleofbees.com
Seizure Chicken / seizurechicken.com
Sports Blog
JSOnline's Sports Blog / jsonline.com/blogs/sports
Runners-Up:
Brew Crew Ball / brewcrewball.com
PastKast / pastkast.com
Personal Blog
M.A.A.R.S. Attack / maarsattack.com
Runners-Up:
Ramblings / sjwhipp.com
House of Brew / houseofbrew.com
Politics Blog
Ron Johnson Is an Ass Clown / ronjohnsonisanassclown.blogspot.com
Runners-Up:
Defend Wisconsin / defendwisconsin.org
Watchdog Milwaukee / watchdogmilwaukee.com
Food Blog
Burp! Where Food Happens / eatatburp.com
Runners-Up:
Iron Cupcake / ironcupcakemilwaukee.com
Vegan Milwaukee / veganmilwaukee.com
Sex Blog
Love, Sex, Etc. / insidemilwaukee.com/blog/lovesexetc
Runners-Up:
The League of Discerning and Cultured Individuals / dumpybitch.com
In Living / onmilwaukee.com/author/showauthor.html?id=128
New Blog Since January 2010
Dude Foods / dudefoods.com
Runners-Up:
Dead Squirrel Pics / deadsquirrelpics.blogspot.com
Milwaukee Brunch Reviews / milwaukeebrunchreviews.com
WEBSITES
Nightlife Site
OnMilwaukee.com / onmilwaukee.com
Runners-Up:
Between the Bars / betweenthebarsmilwaukee.com
MilwaukeeNights.com / milwaukeenights.com
Music Venue Site
Pabst Theater, Turner Hall Ballroom, Riverside Theater / pabsttheater.org
Runners-Up:
The Rave / therave.com
Shank Hall / shankhall.com
Restaurant Site
Iron Horse / theironhorsehotel.com
Runners-Up:
Umami Moto / umamimoto.com
The Bartolotta Restaurants / bartolottas.com
Best-Designed Site
Runners-Up:
Local Activism Site
Growing Power / growingpower.org
Runners-Up:
Wisconsin Humane Society / wihumane.org
Transition Milwaukee / transitionmilwaukee.org
Radio Station Site
88Nine Radio Milwaukee / radiomilwaukee.org
Runners-Up:
WMSE 91.7 / WMSE.org
WUWM 89.7 / WUWM.com
TV Station Site
Today's TMJ4 / tmj4.com
Runners-Up:
Fox 6 / fox6now.com
WISN 12 / wisn.com
Online University
MSOE / msoe.edu
Runners-Up:
Marquette University / marquette.edu
Herzing University Online / herzing.edu
SOCIAL MEDIA
Favorite Twitterer
@Burp_Blog
Runners-Up:
@SJWhipp
@radiomilwaukee
Funniest Twitterer
@dudefoods
Runners-Up:
@bootyp
@sawaboof
Most Compulsive Twitterer
@edcetera
Runners-Up:
@sawaboof
@SaraSantiago
Crankiest Twitterer
@pancakes4life
Runners-Up:
@meghancarnold
@milsuckee
"Fake" or Imposter Twitterer
@fakegovwalker
Runners-Up:
@mil_verine
@craigcounsell
Best Use of Twitter to Promote a Business
@AJBombers
Runners-Up:
@LeffsLuckyTown
@BrennerBeer
Best Use of Facebook to Promote a Business
Leff's Lucky Town
Runners-Up:
88Nine Radio Milwaukee
AJ Bombers
Video Production for the Web
Runners-Up:
Mindpool
Flickr Pool
mkecupcakequeen
Runners-Up:
Tracy Apps
Cream City Milwaukee (tie)
Milwaukee Guerilla Art (tie)
Local Tumblr
Runners-Up:
itsyoshionthemicrophone.tumblr.com
Band/Musician Online Presence
B*RIGHT
Runners-Up:
Kings Go Forth
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (tie)
Juniper Tar (tie)
Locally Built iPhone App
88Nine Radio Milwaukee
Runners-Up:
Travel Wisconsin
Wisconsin Humane Society
*/?>
Great stuff....you guys should add some retail website categories next year. (Clothing, Green, Household, Tools/Hardware, etc.). There's a bunch of local players that are big on the national scene in the ecommerce arena.
Ron Johnson is An Ass Clown won Best Blog? So much for the new tone...
yeah and he hasnt posted anything in 5 months!
Shout out to shepherd express and them free burgers : )
thanks for the feedback, keep the comments coming because 2011 was just our 1st year of doing this event.
How is JSOnline (the URL above links to the main page) a "blog" at all? It's just the main page for the Journal Sentinel's online edition.
If that's a blog, pretty much every website is a blog. A bit more care in the categorization of nominees, please. (Hard to believe voters actually voted for this, too - a longtime flaw of Shepherd polls is the Shepherd's refusal to release any info about how many voters, etc... In not a few cases in past polls, gaming the system has seemed fairly obvious...)
It's pretty obvious that the JS would win a few of these categories- they have the largest online footprint in the Milwaukee area. Why they didn't use the URL for the individual blog, no idea. No one is maintaining that the crack editorial team over at the Shep is working overtime to "be all they can be". Where are the write-ups? At least in their other polls, they write a couple words about the winners- this one is a list, like the lists on OnMilwaukee (truly the "cream of the crap" in online fluff content.) And that intro- painful to read, hurts the mind.