Shepherd Express box on Water Street
This year is the 40th birthday of the Shepherd Express. Milwaukee has come a long way since 1982 when the Shepherd was created by a group of very committed UWM students. Milwaukee was a very different city in 1982 and America was in a recession. Our city was losing its manufacturing base to the anti-union South and across the border to Mexico and Central America. Milwaukee had a racist police chief, Harold Breier, who was given a lifetime appointment from the mayor and city council and who had total contempt for civil liberties.
Our Downtown was strictly an area for office workers and virtually went dark when the workers went home at 5 p.m. There were very few Downtown residential apartments and a very thin Downtown social life or entertainment. The Historic Third Ward was a produce market along with some light manufacturing. And no one could have accused Milwaukee of being a “cool place for young people to live.” This was the Milwaukee that the Crazy Shepherd was born into. Yes, that was its original name. Fortunately, that name didn’t last very long as the Shepherd began to grow in influence. Over the next 12 months, the Shepherd will have four special sections looking back at the development of the music scene, the dining scene and other cultural scenes that describe Milwaukee’s evolution.
Like Milwaukee, the Crazy Shepherd came a long way in the past 40 years, from an eight page poorly laid out tabloid to a small media company with a vibrant and very popular website, a daily e-newsletter sent to over 70,000 subscribers, and for the past year a monthly glossy magazine, a format encouraged by our advertisers and which now has a pickup rate each month of over 99%. Yes, our returns are less than 1% each month.
The Shepherd’s raison d’etre
From its first issue, the Shepherd was committed to accurate, honest, courageous, and intelligent news coverage and commentary provided free to everyone in the community. We at the Shepherd believe that no one should be deprived of the news because of an inability to pay. Democracies can only survive if there is honest and courageous news coverage, and unfortunately, we are in a period where our democracy is under serious threat. Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote says it all: if he had to choose between “a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
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We know our readers are smart, and we hire writers who write to a smart audience without talking down to anyone. The Shepherd’s mission is to support progressive efforts in our city, county and state, and to confront and expose the ridiculous, self-serving, corrupt or politically motivated actions of some elected officials or corporate leaders. The Shepherd will continue to support policies, programs, organizations and businesses that help Milwaukee continue to shift to a modern, interesting, exciting and forward-looking city.
Many nonprofit organizations, with their heroic missions, will say that their coverage in the Shepherd helped them survive by putting their accomplishments in front of our readers. Many restaurants will tell you that it was a Shepherd review that kept them in business and in some cases enabled them to become Milwaukee institutions. We strongly support our local nonprofits, arts and entertainment organizations and small businesses because it is these entities that give Milwaukee its real character and make it a great place to live, work and play.
Fighting for Social Justice for 40 Years
For the past 40 years the Shepherd has been a leader in social justice whether for gender, race, sexual orientation, immigration, voting rights, reproductive freedom, government overreach and corruption, environmental justice or income fairness and equality. We have fought various battles over the years in all these areas and, trust me, there has been push back.
Possibly the most nasty, vulgar and threatening phone calls we received were related to the LGBTQ justice battles. Because we fight for all aspects of social justice, we have lost a number of advertisers and an even larger number of distribution points. We won’t name names, but when you see a business advertising in what appears to be everywhere, but never in the Shepherd despite our highly desirable demographics, it may well be because of our steadfast support for some area of social justice. We don’t back down from any fight for social justice and never will.
Why I Believe the Shepherd is So Important
On a personal level, I have been with the Shepherd for the past 24 years. I didn’t start out in the media business. I came to Milwaukee as a VISTA Volunteer and a community organizer in the Harambee neighborhood. I also taught economics at Smith College, ran the Wisconsin Community Development Finance Authority, did short-term consulting in nine developing countries such as Mongolia and Uganda for the U.S. Agency for International Development and served in the Wisconsin State Assembly for three terms.
Of all these activities, being editor/publisher of the Shepherd has been the most challenging and, in my eyes, the most important work I’ve done. With the current challenges to our democracy including a losing presidential candidate who refuses to accept the results of the voters in hopes of undermining our 235 year old democracy, a U.S. Supreme Court that puts politics above the constitution, a state legislature working with a very politicized State Supreme Court to preserve extreme gerrymandered legislative districts that a federal three judge panel labeled unconstitutional and the most gerrymandered legislative districts in the country, I can’t think of anything more important for me to be doing than keeping the Shepherd alive and well. I don’t take a salary and haven’t taken a salary since the Great Recession of 2008.
Media businesses are difficult but important. News publications especially are important to a community and play a unique role in building a “sense of community” in the areas they represent. News publications are tangible and seen by virtually everyone everyday whether they are reading it or not. Print has survived the coming of radio, television and now the internet. Facebook and Google have done an amazing job selling the story that “print is dead” and that Facebook and Google are the only way to go for advertising. However, studies show that print is still one of the top two or three most effective vehicles for advertising, but the Facebook/Google myth lives on.
Some of you have been reading the Shepherd for many of the past 40 years and have wanted to help. Each year we receive some unsolicited checks from dedicated readers. Beside advertising, we earn monies from events and our Friends group. We put on about 12 events a year, from CannabisExpo to MargaritaFest, and cordially invite you or your business to be a sponsor, a participating vendor or an attendee. Two years ago, we set up a Friends of the Shepherd Express group to enable loyal readers who believe in our mission to support the local free press in a simple and systematic way by clicking shepherdexpress.com/support.
Thank you, please stay safe and hopefully 2022 will be better year for all of us.
Louis Fortis
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
